WIKIMEDIA, SGT IAN FORSYTH RLCProsthetic limbs are rejected by amputees’ bodies at a rate of about 20 percent. Researchers at MIT are seeking to reduce that number, using an amputation procedure that encourages increased feedback between muscles, tendons, and the nervous system so that an artificial limb might stimulate them in a more natural way—giving patients a better sense of proprioception, or where their limb is in space.
The key to the surgical technique, demonstrated in rats so far, is to emulate the normal agonist-antagonist pairing of muscles (think biceps and triceps) at the amputation site so that the muscles and nerves surrounding a prosthetic can sense and transmit proprioceptive information about the artificial limb and how much force is being applied to it. The researchers published their work today (May 31) in Science Robotics.
“We’re talking about a dramatic improvement in patient care,” Hugh Herr, an MIT professor of media arts and sciences and a coauthor of the study, said in a statement. “Right now there’s no robust neural method for a person with limb amputation to feel proprioceptive positions and forces applied to the prosthesis. Imagine how that would completely hinder ...
