The human hand is remarkable, and the loss of an upper limb represents a huge challenge for one’s sensorimotor system. The goal of this workshop is to bring together psychologists, prosthetists, bioengineers, and prosthetic-users to present and discuss work which furthers our understanding of the psychology of upper limb prosthetic use.

The format of this day-long workshop will be to combine two keynote speakers with oral and poster presentations from scientists across a range of cognate disciplines. The first keynote, Dr Tamar Makin from University College London, will give a presentation entitled: ‘Brain plasticity following hand loss’, to provide the audience with an overview of the most recent advances in knowledge regarding the neural changes that occur following amputation. The second keynote, Dr Raoul Bongers from the University of Groningen, will give a presentation entitled: ‘Action-perception learning in upper limb prosthesis use’, highlighting how interventions to improve prostheses uptake need to be designed from a perceptual psychological perspective.

This day-long workshop will take place on the 19th of March at Manchester Metropolitan University, immediately prior to 2019 Trent International Prosthetics Symposium which is being held in the same city. Attendance will be free, although we do request that attendees register to assist with catering. We would hope to attract scientists and professionals from from disciplines such as psychology, sport and health, medicine, and bioengineering. This multi-disciplinary approach will help bring together groups of scientists and applied end users in discussions about the psychology of prosthetic arm.

A call for abstracts will soon appear, with space for 6 oral presentation and ~30 poster presentations. Experimental Psychology Society can provide travel funding for early-career scientists from a Psychology background in the form of Grindley Grants. In addition, Manchester Metropolitan University will fund four travel bursaries for presenters from non-psychology backgrounds.