Thought-Controlled Prosthetic Limb System to Be Tested on Human Subjects

Researchers at John Hopkins University have recently gotten a grant to help them further research a design a new arm prosthetic. They have come up with a couple of different designs that surpass any current model. These devices weigh around nine pounds, which is about what the normal arm weighs. This will make it much easier on the patient compared to the heavier current models. The new design also has 22 degrees of motion. This motion includes independent motion of each finger. This will allow the patient to have nearly the same motion that they had with their normal limb.

Many research groups have been looking into the brain activity involved in the different motions of the arm. They have used microarrays to record and stimulate the brain. They want this information so that they could use implantable neural interfaces to control the arm. Researchers are also trying to figure out some of the signals that provide the sensory feedback. If they could get all this patients would have a prosthetic that weighed close to a normal arm, would allow feeling, controlled by thought, and many degrees of movement. This would be a tremendous breakthrough in the field of orthopedics, and would make a big difference in many people's lives.

I was interested in this article, because the field of prosthesis is very interesting to me. It is also amazing to see how far science is going to understanding how everything works in the human body. The url for the article is http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100804081227.htm.