Most people would be pretty terrified if they had a possessed hand, but a new scientific breakthrough is changing that! A group of scientists at the University of Tokyo are putting the finishing touches on an armband that sends tiny electric shocks through your skin and into the nerves in your hand. You can program the device to make the muscles in your hand move any way you want. It can make you an ace guitarist without you ever learning a chord. OR it can help someone who can’t move at all to wiggle their fingers!

The scientists call it “The Possessed Hand.” It’s the first machine that uses electric pulses to bend and move several joints at once, in a particular order. That’s good for playing music without practice, but it’s even better for people with paralysis. Normally the brain would send a signal to the hand to make it move. Sometimes, after a stroke or an injury, the brain stops sending the signals, even though there’s nothing wrong with the muscles and joints themselves. That’s where the possessed hand comes in. It can stimulate the nerves and muscles without the brain, and it can do it over the skin. Older devices actually had to be implanted under the skin to get the same effect! Doctors are calling it a breakthrough, but musicians, not so much.