Researchers from MIT have been developing a prosthetic leg that links to the patients brain and muscles, and predicts movements to give the patient a feeling of control.
Article Excerpt
When someone loses part of a leg, a prosthetic can make it easier to get around. But most prosthetics are static, cumbersome, and hard to move. A new neural interface connects a bionic limb to nerve endings in the thigh, allowing the limb to be controlled by the brain. The new device, which is described today in Nature Medicine, could help people with lower-leg amputations feel as if their prosthesis is part of them.
“When you ask a patient ‘What is your body?’ they don’t include the prosthesis,” says MIT biophysicist Hugh Herr, one of the lead authors on the study. The work is personal for him: he lost both his lower legs in a climbing accident when he was 17. He says linking the brain to the prosthesis can make it feel more like part of someone’s anatomy, which can have a positive emotional impact.
“If you have intact biological limbs, you can walk up and down steps, for example, and not even think about it. It’s involuntary,” says Herr. “That’s the case with our patients, but their limb is made of titanium and silicone.”
The authors compared the mobility of seven patients using a neural interface with that of patients who had not received the surgery. Patients using the neural interface could walk 41% faster and climb sloped surfaces and steps. They could also dodge obstacles more nimbly and had better balance. And they described feeling that the prosthetic was truly a part of their body rather than just a tool that they used to get around.
Relevance
Researchers at MIT have been looking into technology regarding amputees and prosthetic limbs. What they have been working on is a prothetic limb that is able to read your mind and body and move itself in real time, just like a human leg would. How this works is during an operation, after there has been an amputation, the prosthetic will be attached to muscle near the shin and calf. Electrodes are then connected to different parts of the nervous system, as well as surrounding muscles, to read and predict your bodies movements.
Their research saw large differences of mobility between those who had the prothetic neurologically connected and those who did not. It was observed that those who did have it connected neurologically were able to move a lot quicker and were more agile.
This type of product is significant to my research because this product is seeking to be autonomous. Its purpose is to work as intended without the user having to ever think about the fact that they are using a prosthetic leg. It seeks to blend in to their daily routine, causing less hassle, working continuously and efficiently on its own.
Sources
Ward, S. (2024, July 3). People can move this bionic leg just by thinking about it. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/07/01/1094459/bionic-leg-neural-prosthetic/
