Researchers forging neural links for finer control of artificial limbs

Someday, users of artificial hands may be able to play the piano, thanks to implanted devices that read and harness subtle control signals in their brain. Researchers at an IEEE bioengineering conference here last week reported advances in neural technology as well as the hurdles still ahead for delivering such capabilities.

“A prosthesis revolution is under way, and a lot of the mechanical problems are getting solved,” said Nitish Thakor, a professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore), speaking at one of two workshops on neural systems. “Now the challenge is linking [prosthetic devices] to the nervous system to control them in a real-time fashion.”

The overall market for neural prosthetics is valued at $2.8 billion, estimates Daryl Kipke, a researcher from the University of Michigan who described work on new microarray electrodes to monitor and control brain functions.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding work to drive rapid improvements in the mechanical aspects of artificial limbs. That is fueling a need for better electrodes, electronics and algorithms to capture control information from the brain to drive the mechanical devices.

“The whole system of a prosthetic hand is a vast research area, with many fields in- volved,” said Thakor. He described advances in algorithms that could let someone control basic functions, such as picking up a glass, with signals from an electroencephalogram (EEG) monitor worn on the scalp. Finer controls, such as playing a piano, would require a high-performance neural microarray sensor implanted in the brain–a development that’s on the horizon, Thakor said.

“The buzz is that neural technology is today where cardio technol-ogy was 20 or 30 years ago,” said Kipke. “The brain-computer interface is about to be defined as we come to understand its components.”

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