jOSHUA FRANCIS

Imperial College London

PhD Title:

Studying the effects that pain feedback has on the physical and psychological perception of prosthetics, to develop reactive and embodied neurally-linked prosthetics

Research Interests:

• Neuroscience

• Robotics

• Biomedical engineering

Biography

Pain, whilst mostly an unpleasant experience, provides two important functions for the body: firstly, it allows us to react quickly to aberrant or damaging stimuli, and secondly, it reinforces the perception that the body part that is in pain is a part of the “self”. For many amputees, the prosthetics they use don’t provide the same level of reactiveness that healthy limbs have, nor are they embodied: perceived as part of the self. This can lead to a wide range of issues for the patient, including rejecting the prosthetic, and phantom limb pain. My PhD is studying the effects that pain feedback has on the physical and psychological perception of prosthetics, in order to develop neurally-linked prosthetics that are both reactive and embodied.

Having grown up in Hong Kong, I moved to the UK where I spent 5 years at the University of York where I mostly played rugby. However, I did manage to come out the other side with an MSci in Neuroscience and an MSc in Robotics.

Outside of TASERing people in the name of science, I play the bass and the guitar. I am an amateur woodworker, and build most of the instruments I play. Occasionally I can also be found in the gym powerlifting.