Wednesday, November 14, 2007

TMR going far


And last one for tonight, Natalia pointed out that Dr. Kuiken's work in Chicago has been in the news again, thanks to some advancements that led to a J Neurophys paper. You'll remember the work (targeted muscle reinnervation) from the big media blitz a couple years ago.

Long story short, they reroute nerves that were going to an amputated limb, to muscles on the chest, side, and abdomen. Patients think about moving the non-existent limb, causing the fibers to fire, thereby eliciting a EMG detectable twitch of the new target muscle. That activity is then translated into movement of a robotic arm. The new paper discusses nerve targets, and more electrodes, making movement detection 95% accurate for 16 movements.

Paper found here.

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