How can someone control a machine with her thoughts?
This week, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago introduced the first woman to be fitted with its “bionic arm” technology. Claudia Mitchell, who had her left arm amputated at the shoulder after a motorcycle accident, can now grab a drawer pull with her prosthetic hand by thinking, “grab drawer pull.” That a person can successfully control multiple, complex movements of a prosthetic limb with his or her thoughts opens up a world of possibility for amputees. The setup — both surgical and technological — that makes this feat possible is almost as amazing as the results of the procedure. The “bionic arm” technology is possible primarily because of two facts of amputation. First, the motor cortex in the brain (the area that controls voluntary muscle movements) is still sending out control signals even if certain voluntary
