...:: Days of Our Future ::...

Artificial nerves that allow people with false limbs to feel the heat from a coffee cup or the touch of another person's hand are being developed by scientists.

'Cyber-nerves' are created from a revolutionary material called Pedot that conducts electricity like a wire and which can encourage the growth of new cells.

Strands of Pedot have already been used to connect severed nerves in animals and restore use of defunct muscles.

Researchers are hoping the first tests on people, which could one day help amputees to feel heat, cold and touch with their prosthetic limbs, will start in three years.

Their goal is to splice strands of the material into a patient's nervous system and then connect the cyber-nerves to sensors built into artificial fingers, toes and hands.

Prof Paul Cederna, plastic surgeon at the University of Michigan, said: 'Somebody who has lost both their hands would be able to hold their child's hand again and feel the warmth.'

The creation of Pedot was announced at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons conference in Seattle earlier this month.

The research is being funded by the Pentagon in a bid to help war veterans who have lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to Prof Cederna, the new synthetic nerves pave the way to two-way communication between a patient's brain and their prosthetic limb.

Pedot reacts more quickly than normal nerve cells - and is 10 times more efficient at carrying electrical signals than metals currently use.

The plastic also stimulates the growth of healthy new nerve cells.

In one experiment, plastic surgeons grafted Pedot on to the severed leg of a rat.

In a second study, researchers created a 'cup' containing cells, muscle and the Pedot material around the severed nerve of a rat.

After 114 days, new blood vessels and muscles had formed, nerve fibres had regrown and sensation returned for the animal.

Prof Cederna wants to start human trials within three years - and hopes to create the first artificial limbs using cyber-nerves spliced into ordinary nerves within the decade.

He told the Sunday Times: 'It would feel the same as the real thing. There would be no re-learning  required from the brain because the nerves already carry all those signals.'

New nerve fibres grew and took over from the damaged ones - bringing back to life muscles which had been useless.

The nerves would be connected to thousands of microscopic sensors that can distinguish hot, cold and touch, he added.

Around 5,000 people are fitted with a prosthetic limb each year. Four out of five are false legs and feet.

Pedot offers most help to the minority who have lost a hand.

Michael Fox, a the Royal National Orthopaedic hospital in London, said there were huge technical obstacles to creating a 'feeling' false hand.

'There is a great risk of the brain receiving wrong signals,' he said. 'I am excited by these advances but it's very early days.'

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