For the first time, a person with a cyber prosthesis was able to return the sense of touch

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For the first time, a person with a cyber prosthesis was able to return the sense of touch
For the first time, a person with a cyber prosthesis was able to return the sense of touch
Anonim

The new neurointerface allows not only to control the movement of paralyzed limbs, but also to feel touches and experience other tactile sensations. Description of the invention of American neurophysiologists was published in the scientific journal Cell.

“Until now, our patient Ian felt as if his hand was 'alien.' even the simplest actions , - commented on the success of one of the developers, neurophysiologist from the Battelle Memorial Institute (USA) Patrick Gantzer.

The so-called neurointerfaces are a combination of microchips, electrodes and computer algorithms. They allow connecting various cyber-limbs, artificial eyes, or even synthetic senses like thermal imagers or X-ray imagers to the brain of a person or animals.

For example, in 2012, scientists first connected an artificial arm to the brain of a paralyzed woman. Thanks to this prosthesis, the woman was able to drink a cup of coffee on her own and perform some other actions. In 2016, specialists from the American Duke University connected the patient's brain to a robotic wheelchair, and a year ago, using a special spinal cord stimulator, they restored the ability to walk.

The development and use of such cyber limbs, as noted by Gantzer, is now hampered by the fact that their owner cannot feel their movements when an artificial leg or hand touches the floor, table surface and other obstacles. As the latest experiments of neurophysiologists show, tactile sensations play a very important role in how the brain "learns" to control its own and cybernetic limbs.

Gantzer and his team solved this problem. Over the past six years, they have been working on the creation of a neurointerface that allows patients to directly "connect" their hands to the brain, bypassing the damaged areas of the spine.

Cybernetic hand touch

In these experiments, as the scientist notes, a 28-year-old young man named Ian Burkhart participated. Nine years ago, he injured his spinal cord in a diving accident. Scientists inserted a special chip and a set of electrodes into the patient's cerebral cortex, and then tried to connect an artificial hand to them.

Initially, these experiments were successful: the volunteer successfully mastered the cyber prosthesis and learned to control the movement of the robotic arm, to perform simple actions. Subsequently, however, his progress slowed down, which both scientists and Burkhart himself attributed to the fact that he could not feel the movements of the limb.

While trying to figure out how to fix this problem, Gantzer and his colleagues accidentally noticed that the cyberhand's skin was not completely desensitized. She continued to generate signals for touch and movement, but they were too weak to be "noticed" by the patient's brain.

Neurophysiologists have tested what happens if you try to amplify this signal using external sensors, micromotors and electrodes. They generated vibrations and sent electrical impulses of a certain type into the patient's skin at the moment when he touched an object or made movements.

As subsequent experiments showed, thanks to such an improvement, Burkhart almost unmistakably began to recognize that he was touching an object without looking at it. In addition, because of this, voluntary hand movements became faster and more accurate, thanks to which Burkhartu was able to limit the strength of his movements.

In the near future, Gantser and his team are planning to create a new version of such a cyber prosthesis, which can be used not only in the laboratory, but also at home. Scientists hope that such neurointerfaces will help many people regain the ability to lead their own lives.

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