Jan Scheuermann, 53, from the US, is paralysed from the neck down. Jan
has a robotic arm that can pick up and move objects with a speed
comparable to able-bodied people.
"It's so cool ... It's not a
matter of thinking which direction any more, it's just a matter of
thinking 'I want to do that'," she told a press conference.
Experts are calling it a large step forward for prosthetics controlled directly by the brain.
For Jan, the experience has been transforming.
Project spokesman Michael Boninger told Reuters the arm had given Ms Scheuermann a "renewed purpose".
It
took weeks of training for Jan to control the hand, but she was able to
move it after just two days, and over time she mastered tasks - such as
picking up objects, orientating them, and moving them to a target
position - with a 91.6 percent success rate. Her speed increased with
practice.
How it works – Two microelectrode devices were
implanted into the Jan’s left motor cortex, the part of the brain that
initiates movement.
Real-time brain scanning techniques,
called functional magnetic resonance imaging, were used to find the
exact part of the brain that lit up after the patient was asked to think
about moving her now unresponsive arms.
The electrodes were
connected to the robotic hand via a computer running a complex algorithm
to translate the signals that mimics the way an unimpaired brain
controls healthy limbs.
Source : CandoAbility .Au ( 21st jan 2013 )
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