Advances in Neuronal Control of Prosthetic Devices Essay

Encyclopedia of Nursing & Allied Health. Bioelectricity: Transmission of nerve impulses to muscle. Retrieved on 26 June 2011 from http://www.enotes.com/nursing-encyclopedia/bioelectricity

Within the past few years, however, scientists have made many new advancements. The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved 2 electronic systems that regulate muscles by sending electrical signals through implanted wires, called functional electrical stimulation (FES). Some proteins have been found to promote nerve growth and restore limb function and sensation when administered directly

EMG biofeedback: Can be utilized to receive information related to motor performance, kinesthetic performance or physiological response

The lack of technology in the past has left multiple stroke patients struggling with physical and mental impairments. However, due to the constant change and improvements made to technology, patients are now getting more help with their physical and mental needs. Nowadays, the odds of a patient gaining full function and ability back after a traumatic brain injury are much more favorable than not. Advanced technology such as robotic gloves, interactive video games, and electrical stimulators are effective tools in the treatment of strokes because they stimulate the brain to help regain ability and motor functions.

The information in this literature review was collected from an expert interview and the search databases Science Direct, PubMed, and Google Scholar. The expert for the expert interview was selected based on experience with designing prosthetics for individuals that had lost their hand and potentially part of their arm (Birdwell, 2016). The databases were searched using keywords “spinal cord injury”, “hand movement”, and “fine motor movement”. In PubMed the selection was also narrowed down by selecting only studies done on humans. New terminology was searched through science direct due to the built in function that allows for key words from the article to be selected for further information from multiple books or journals.

A paralysis research guide and updated clinical trials are available. The website offers scholarly articles which contain information on observations and experimentations related to spinal cord injuries. One article that showed how research can benefit patients is Four Paraplegic Men Voluntarily Move Their Legs by Claudia Angeli, Ph.D., senior researcher at Human Locomotor Research Center at Frazier Rehab Institute. The article discussed how four individuals with spinal cord injuries, were implanted with epidural stimulators. The participants were monitored over a three year period. Results were achieved through continual direct epidural electrical stimulation of the participants' lower spinal cord, mimicking signals the brain normally transmits to initiate movement (Angeli, 2014, para. 5). All the participants were able to stand independently, had an increase in muscle mass and regulation of blood pressure at the end of the research period. Empirical evidence was used by observation and inference. The data was recorded and analyzed, leading to a significant breakthrough in the treatment of paralysis and spinal cord injuries. The second article that showed empirical evidence was The Real Brain Drain: Unmet Neuro Therapies by Martin Schwab, Ph. D. The article discussed drug companies and their reluctance to pursue drugs for neurological disorders. Drug companies have

Anna and Patricia needed equipment assistance such as NESS L300 Foot Drop System or plastic brace for support. NESS L300 is the device that can send signal to stimulate the peroneal nerve to lift up the muscle and electric impulse to help patient with uneven surfaces and stairs. The electric impulse that send by L300 can leads to increase in activity of brain’s motor cortex and peroneal nerve that can improves the strength of leg muscle and decrease tightness that often occurs in

A spinal cord stimulation trial is a test to see whether a spinal cord stimulator reduces your pain. A spinal cord stimulator is a small device that is attached to your back. The stimulator has small wires (leads) that connect it to your spinal cord. The stimulator sends electrical pulses through the leads to the spinal cord. These electrical pulses block the nerve impulses that cause pain.

Throughout most of modern science, it was believed that injuries to the central nervous system were permanent and unrepairable. However, scientists are now starting to believe that there are remedies for some of these injuries and that the CNS can reorganize itself after injury. For many years there was not much focus being on neurorehabilitation, but now more scientists are diving deeper into rehabilitation techniques for CNS injuries. Research on monkeys who had an unusable arm showed that certain therapy techniques could train the monkey’s brain to use the arm again. This type of therapy is known as CI therapy. This technique requires the working appendage to be rendered immobile forcing the subject to use the immobile arm more over a consecutive

"For the first time, I can imagine a completely paralyzed patient able to move their legs through this brain-spine interface," said Dr. Jocelyne Bloch of the Lausanne University Hospital, the neurosurgeon who installed the brain and spinal cord implants.

Modern prosthetic limbs have become very advanced in the last decade. They now have the ability to grip objects, have running limbs, and many more wonderful things. Although these prosthetics are great, they are lacking some key extras that amputees would relish. What amputees really want is their sense of feeling back. They want to reach out with their prosthetic limb and be able to tell if the stove is on or off. They want to be able to press the gas of an automobile. This sense, that all non-amputees take for granted, would be a great place to start the improvement of the perfect prosthetic limb. To accomplish such a daunting task, engineers must figure out an alternative source that could interact with the amputees still intact nerve endings. This way they can use their still functioning nerves to communicate with their pseudo-nerve and have the ability to move their prosthesis around with complete control of it and its sense of touch. I believe this has not

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) can result in loss or permanent damage of motor, sensory or autonomic function, generally caused by physical trauma to the spinal cord. In humans the most common type of SCI is hemisection or contusion (Nandoe-Tewarie et al. 2009). This incomplete injury, leads to swelling or compression of the spinal cord due to bone displacement, resulting in partial loss of function and/or sensation. Complete severing of the spinal cord fibres can occur, although less often, and results in impairment of all function and sensation below the trauma site (Sobani et al. 2010). Due to the complicated physiology of the spinal cord and central nervous system, and their diminished regenerative properties, currently, there have been no effective forms of treatment of SCI.

Now as for “non-drug intervention” treatments, mirror box is one of the few treatments. where a device containing a vertical mirror and is positioned so a reflection of the patient intact limb is superimposed onto the perceived position of the phantom limb. It is shown that the mirrored movements activate the contra lateral sensory motor cortex and cause a reduction in pain. Dr. Ramachandran believes that amputees can experience somatic or postural empathy during mirror neuron activity when observing others using their limbs and this may evoke phantom limb pain. Dr. Ramachandran described the mirror to be the primary tool of this treatment in which the patient receives visual feedback to train the brain to configure a new “body map.” The goal

sophisticated electronics to let the nerve and muscle systems of the human body to be able

Non-invasive electroencephalogram (EEG) based BCIs have allowed participants – disabled and healthy – to control cursors in 1, 2 and 3 dimensions using sensorimotor rhythms (which is an oscillatory wave that decreases when the corresponding motor area is activated, e.g. during motor tasks (Wikipedia, 2015)). Control of a spelling device, conventional assistive devices, a hand orthosis, functional electrical stimulation of a patient’s hand, robotic and prosthetic devices, and a wheelchair have all also been achieved with sensorimotor rhythms (Shih, Krusienski and Wolpaw,