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First Woman to Receive Bionic Arm |
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Written by William Cox
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Thursday, 21 September 2006 |
 First it was Jesse Sullivan, the first man to receive two bionic arms that are controlled via his own brain impulses, now it's Claudia Mitchell, the first woman to receive such an arm. Mitchell is the 4th such person to receive such an arm, which is controlled via nerves which originally went to the actual arm. The nerve endings left in the shoulder are then surgically moved to the chest-area, where they can then be used to send data from the brain to the arm.
The nerves grow into the chest muscles, so when the patient thinks “close hand,” a portion of his chest muscle contracts and electrodes that detect this muscle activity tell the computerized arm when to close the hand. Thus, the patient thinks “close hand” and his artificial hand closes.
The scientists in charge of this project are now working towards having an artifical hand send data back to the brain under the guise of a real hand.
The person also ends up with a patch of skin about the width of a baseball that, when stroked, warmed or pricked, feels like a hand rather than part of the chest.
You can check out some videos of the arms in action, here, here and here.
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