Hands-on experience as pianists learn to play with robot thumb

London: How would pianists cope with suddenly having two thumbs on one hand? Would their brains become scrambled or would the extra digit add a new dimension to their playing?

Neuroscientist Adlo Faisal and the team he heads at Imperial College London developed a robot thumb to find out. Within an hour of being fitted with the artificial digit next to the little finger of their right hand, six players had learned to integrate it on the keyboard, steered by electrical signals generated when they move their foot.