European Researchers Advance Thought-Controlled Prosthesis Technology

European scientists have successfully connected a robotic hand to an amputee named Pierpaolo Petruzziello, allowing him to feel sensations in the artificial limb and control it with his thoughts. The result of ten years of research by scientists at the Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma in Italy and Lund University in  Sweden, the “Smart Hand” incorporates four motors and 40 sensors, which are linked directly to the patient’s brain. The hand allows the patient to perform complicated actions without muscle contractions and solely with cerebral impulses. The patient, who lost his hand in an automobile crash, underwent surgery to join nerve endings with sensor receptors in the prosthetic hand. The prosthetic hand was connected to Petruzziello’s nervous system for a month, which is the maximum amount of time allowed by regulatory authorities for such devices in an experimental setting. The researchers report that the experiment is the first time such a device was used in a patient for such duration. The scientists, who have been awarded a US$3-million grant to pursue the research, are working to ensure that the system can remain in patients permanently. The researchers indicate that it will be at least two or three years before they attempt to replicate the experiment with a longer-term prosthesis.

The two videos embedded below show the technology in action:

A website on the project is available on the university’s website.

Earlier this year on medtechinsider, we covered similar research, which is the result of a program known as “Revolutionizing Prosthetics.”

Tags: brain, hand, prosthetic hand, robot, robotic hand