Date

12/31/2022

Publishing company

NIH News in Health

Title

Bionic Movement

Summary

This article explains how to feel sensations through a prosthetic arm. In the past, many prosthetic arms were just scrap metal, but as technology advances, researchers are working on ways to give people "feelings" through prosthetics. This article introduces two methods that can help people with bionic devices feel like using their natural limbs. The first is "the use of sensory nerves." When a person's arm is amputated, it is formed in the shape of a stump. At this time, Move the remaining sensory nerves from the transmitted arm to the skin of the upper arm; sensory nerves are placed on the skin. And then, by using a small robot, which can make hand press the skin on the upper arm when it touches something, and this way people can artificially send sensory signals to your brain. By using this, it can be made to feel the same sensation as using a real arm rather than a prosthetic arm. The second method is "use of vibration". This method uses a computer and a small robot to trick the brain by sending vibrations to the muscles. When the prosthetic arm grabs something, it sends that information to a computer control system outside the body, which instructs a small robot attached to the arm to vibrate the arm muscles based on that information. This generates various vibrations according to the strength of the force holding the object and transmits the generated vibrations to the depth of the muscles, and it might sense an actual muscle moving.

My thought

*An estimated 185,000 people undergo amputation procedures in the US every year(Zhang, 2018). There are people in the world how have had parts of their bodies amputated for various reasons. Each of them has several reasons, but it is the same that everyday life is difficult. The result of science developed for them is prosthetic limbs. prosthetic limbs are much more advanced than they used to be, but I think there are still much more to be done. The biggest problem with bionic limbs is that they cannot feel. They cannot feel their own strength, so they can break objects that break even with weak force, and they can drop objects by holding weakly something that requires formidable force. So, to solve this problem, the article introduces the way to get feel use our remain nerves or vibrations. In my opinion, vibration skill is interesting; I searched and read more about how vibration make prosthetic limbs to feel. Marasco who is scientist explain *“If you vibrate a muscle mechanically, you’ll get a sense in the joint that’s crossed by that muscle that it’s moving, even though it’s not” (Thielking, 2018). First, when you think about what to do with your head, movement signals are transmitted from your brain to your hands, which are then sent back to a small robot attached to your forearm. If so, *the robot will deliver vibrations of various intensities depending on the strength we give it, and through it, it causes optical illusions in the brain (ThielkingMegan, 2018). Looking at these methods, I think that the day will come when we can feel not simple senses, but the five senses that our skin has: mechanoreceptors, thermoreceptors, nociceptors, electromagnetic receptors, and chemoreceptors.

Want to know more

1.      I want to know more deeper how can we feel something

2.      Peripheral nervous system