Phantom limb syndrome is where amputees feel the sensation of their limb that has been removed. This can cause often distressing sensations for the amputee such as itching, pain and sometimes the desire to make a gesture. Adding to this anguish, their phantom limb is often much smaller than their previous, real limb. The prosthetic limbs currently available don't provide sensory feedback; meaning they don't have the sensation of touch through the prosthesis. Through the use of VR the amputees could be convinced that their prosthetic limb is in fact an integral part of their body, therefore effectively mitigating the distressing presence of phantom limb syndrome.

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​To conduct this experiment, the students of EPFL ascertained that a sense of presence is incredibly important to convince the amputee’s brain to accept the robotic limb. To help increase the sense of presence they did two things. Firstly, they stimulated the patient’s sense of touch by pulsing electrical signals through the stump.  Secondly, when the amputee wore the VR goggles which showed an artificial hand, the hand glowed in the same places (and at the same time) as the electrical signals to make it seem as if they had their original limb back. Through the rich, highly realistic multi-sensory VR experience most amputees were convinced their limb was still attached; proving that a sense of presence makes the unreal seem real. After this experiment the amputees reported that their phantom limb had grown in size and now mimicked the size and feel of the limb they had lost. Through this, their body would better adapt to a prosthetic limb as it would feel much more realistic.