How Bionic Arms Work When an arm is amputated, the nerves that would carry out the functions of the limb are still there, and the motor cortex of the brain is still sending out signals to those nerves. So if someone's arm has been amputated, the brain is still sending out messages to your nerves that have nowhere to put their information.
Surgeons then need to reroute the nerves to a working muscle, most often, those in your chest. The difficult surgery includes, dissecting the shoulder, redirecting the nerves to the working chest muscles, and doing this all without damaging the nerves. The the patient needs to give several months for the nerves to become fully integrated to the muscles. This whole procedure is called targeted muscle reinnervation. Now, the nerves send their messages to the working muscles in the patients chest, instead of just sending them out meaninglessly to the nerve-stubs. Then, electrodes are setup on the chest with the working nerves, and those are connected to the bionic arm. When your brain sends our the signal to open your hand, the electrodes pick up the messages that are now at your chest, and sends the message to the bionic arm, which performs the action. |
|