Footnotes

• GR, FMP and SR contributed equally.

• AS, SM and OB contributed equally.

• Contributors GR designed the study, performed the experiments, analysed the data and wrote the paper. FMP and SR developed the software for the neural stimulation, contributed to the design of the study, performed the experiments and wrote the paper (GR, FMP and SR equally contributed to the work). GG, RDI, IS, GV and ED collaborated during the development of the neural stimulation software and during the experiment. MS designed, performed and analysed the telescoping experiment. RM developed the augmented reality software and integrated it with the neural stimulation device. JB-R and BH integrated the augmented reality software with the neural stimulation device, contributed to the design of the experiments and performed part of the experiments. GDP selected the patients and collaborated during the experiments. TS developed the TIME electrodes. DA and DG developed the device for the neural stimulation. PMR selected the patients and supervised the experiments. AS designed the study, performed the experiments, analysed the data and wrote the paper. SM and OB designed the study, supervised the experiments and wrote the paper (AS, SM and OB equally contributed to the work). All the authors read and approved the manuscript.

• Funding This work was partly supported by the EU Grant CP-FP-INFSO 224012 TIME project (Transverse Intrafascicular Multichannel Electrode system), by the EU Grant FET 611687 NEBIAS Project (NEurocontrolled BIdirectional Artificial upper limb and hand prosthesiS), by the EU Grant Health 602547 EPIONE project (Natural sensory feedback for phantom limb pain modulation and therapy), by the EU Grant ERC-STG 678908 RESHAPE project, by the project NEMESIS (Neurocontrolled mechatronic hand prosthesis) funded by the Italian Ministry of Health, by the Bertarelli Foundation, by the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuro-engineering and by the Swiss National Competence Center in Research (NCCR) in Robotics.

• Competing interests SM, SR, FMP hold shares of Sensars Neuroprosthetics, a company working to commercialise novel solutions for transradial amputees.

• Patient consent Not required.

• Ethics approval The experimental procedures were approved by both the Institutional Ethics Committees of Policlinic A Gemelli at Catholic University and the IRCCS S Raffaele Pisana (Rome). Informed consent was obtained from both patients.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.