Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Limbs Allow Precise, Smooth Movement

It is a very unfortunate thing when we see a lot of people are there in this world with lost limbs. The main cause may be an accident or any sort of infection due to which the leg or hand had to be amputated from the body. But we have also seen that now with the help of the prosthetic limbs many people can walk even without their legs too. But then you must be wondering as to why then the mind controlled prosthetic limb had to be invented. Well to know that you have to know the disadvantages of the normal prosthetic limb.

The normal prosthetic limb is actually a robotic limb with a fixed movement so that the limbs can be moved to a limited extent. But this is not at all enough for the person to do his or her daily needs. Not only that these robotic limbs are actually very involuntary and will not work just according to the way you want it to. That is why a group of scientists has brought forward this new notion of the mind controlled prosthetic limb with the help of which the patient will at least be able to control the limb movements.

How will it be possible? 

At first the idea seems incredible as well as next to impossible but it has been possible only with the presence of micro electrodes. According to them if the prosthetic limb could be connected to the microelectrodes and then the microelectrodes could be implanted in that part of the individual’s brain that consisted of the intension to perform the movement, then the limbs even they are robotic cn be guided accordingly.

Formerly the problem was that even when the prosthetic limbs were forced to work in the right manner manually, the results were not very positive but now the scientists are themselves astounded by the results.

Case study: 

There was a person in Los Angeles named Sorto who was in the army but unfortunately in the year 2002 he became crippled for life as a result of a single gunshot. Since then, it had literally become impossible for him to perform even his daily needs and he hated to be dependent on anybody.

So the scientists did the first mind controlled prosthetic limb experiment on him. In the University of the Sothern California, a pair of small electrodes was placed on the posterior parietal cortex of Sorto. Then the pair of prosthetic limbs was connected to the computers that were carrying the brain signals of Sorto’s intentional movement.
It was seen that the limbs moved in the manners he wanted to and thus the scientists could successfully find out a way so that even the crippled did not have to be dependant in any way. While these robotic limbs encourage the fact that the work can be done faster formerly the prosthetic limbs used to do the work in a delayed and imperfect manner.