A Prosthetic Arm That Acts Like a Real One

This article is impressed because of our biotechnology. By this technique the patients can use the nerves to control the prosthetic limbs. Basicly, the scientists transplanted to the upper chest both motor and sensory nerves that, prior to the amputation, would have traveled from the shoulder to muscles in the arm and hand. After the surgery, the transplanted nerves grew into the chest muscle. So they can eventually trigger twitches in the shoulder muscle when the patient thought about moving her hand or elbow. Scientists then mapped the precise pattern of muscle activity that occurred when the patient mentally executed specific movements, such as grasping or moving the elbow. There is also a company which can make a specialized prosthetic limb, which was programmed to sense muscle activity generated by the transplanted nerves and use it to control movement of a motorized elbow, wrist, and hand. By that way, the patient was able to use her new arm within a few days, becoming four times as fast on movement tests as she was with her traditional prosthetic.

The link of this article is:

http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/18134/