Major breakthrough made by Researchers in mind-controlled prosthetics

Researchers and scientists have just make a major breakthrough when it comes to amputee patients and prosthetics.

Scientists at the University of Michigan have just had a breakthrough in mind-controlled prosthetics being used by patients. The new discovery has closed the gap between amputee patients thinking about moving a prosthetic limb, and the limb actually moving. According to Paul Cedena, a professor of biomedical engineering and Robert Oneal Collegiate Professor of Plastic Surgery at the U-M Medical School, "This is the biggest advance in motor control for people with amputations in many years."

Cedena continued, "We have developed a technique to provide individual finger control of prosthetic devices using the nerves in a patient's residual limb. With it, we have been able to provide some of the most advanced prosthetic control that the world has seen."

This is an extremely promising breakthrough for researchers and in particular, amputee patients. In the study, which was published in Science Translational Medicine, four amputee participants were required to pick up blocks with a pincer grasp. They were also asked to continually move their thumbs, lift spherical objects, and play Rock, Paper, scissors. According to one of the participants, Joe Hamilton, who happened to, unfortunately, lose his arm in a fireworks accident, " It's like you have a hand again. You can pretty much do anything you can do with a real hand with that hand. It brings you back to a sense of normalcy."

If you are interested in reading more on this new discovery, check out this link here.