A photo from open sources
Progress in making artificial hands today day allows you to design incredibly advanced prostheses, however, the ability to give them sensory ability is developed much less.
And now, researchers from the Cleveland Medical Center Rehabilitation of Veterans and Case Western Reserve University developed a new electronic circuit that is implanted in the arm the patient and allows him to receive sensory sensations from 20 points, located on an artificial limb.
In the video below you can see 48-year-old Igor Spethika from Madison, Ohio, one of two patients who are on Today a new interface has been implanted. The implant is attached to three bundles of nerves of the hand – radial, median and ulnar, each covered by a seven-millimeter cuff.
During implantation, as soon as the cuffs were connected to to the right nerves, Spethik said that he feels like someone touches the back of his hand and fingers when anyone touched these areas.
This new technology differs from previous neural interfaces. by stimulating axons – protective membranes surrounding the nerve fibers, instead of invading this layer of living cells. AND although this provides less “resolution” of sensations, but allows the interface will work much longer – up to 18 months instead a few weeks.
Spethik told MIT Technology Review: “I feel joy, seeing the work done by scientists, and I really hope to help others to people. I know that science takes time. And even if I can’t take advantage of its fruits, but another person can – it worth it. ”
