It is a hope for millions of people. Brain-controlled prostheses are a revolutionary technology. Scientists developed it for people with some kind of amputation. The stump could be connected to a prosthesis that, in turn, can be controlled by the patient’s brain.
This is according to new research published in the journal Nature MedicineResearchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new type of surgical intervention. It reconnects the muscles of the stump and allows patients to receive “proprioceptive” information about the position of the prosthesis in space.

First in history
“This is the first prosthetic study in history to show a prosthetic leg under complete neural modulation. No one has shown this level of brain control that produces a natural gait. The human nervous system controls movement, not a robotic control algorithm,” they say.
The study involved seven patients who underwent this surgery. They were able to walk faster, avoid obstacles and climb stairs much more naturally than with a traditional prosthesis. The patients also experienced less pain and less muscle atrophy after this surgery. So far, around 60 patients from all over the world have received this type of surgery. It can also be performed on people with arm amputations. Here, the two ends of the muscles are connected so that they continue to communicate dynamically with each other within the stump.
Seven people who had undergone the surgery were compared with others who had undergone traditional below-knee amputations. All the subjects used the same type of bionic limb. It was a prosthesis with a motorized ankle and electrodes capable of picking up electromyographic (EMG) signals from the muscles. These signals are sent to a robotic controller. It helps the prosthesis calculate how much to bend the ankle, how much torque to apply, or how much power to deliver.

Natural movement
In all tests, the subjects walked faster. And they were able to overcome obstacles more easily.
Brain-controlled prosthetics had other advantages. They also displayed more natural movements, such as pointing their prosthetic fingers upward when climbing stairs or clearing an obstacle. They were better able to coordinate the movements of their prosthetic limb and their intact limb. And they could push off from the ground with the same force as a person without an amputation.