An amputee man controls his bionic arms by thinking

It is a world first. Leslie Baugh, a man who has been amputated for 40 years, has just had two bionic arms equipped with neurotransmitters transplanted. Performed at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland (USA), the surgery was performed so that the brain was directly connected to these arms.

Electrical signals sent to the brain
“By reassigning existing nerves, we are giving amputees the possibility of controlling their prosthesis by mere thought,” explains surgeon Albert Chi, who led the procedure.
The bionic arm system, which converts electrical signals sent by the brain into real movement, was developed after several years. It is based on algorithms, which manage both the identification of movements, the communication between the “limbs” and the brain, the amplitude and frequency of these movements.
Doctors then translate this data into real movements.

Leslie Baugh, is now able to perform several movements after the operation such as shaking hands or grabbing objects. “We expected better results than with more traditional systems, but the speed and number of movements learned far exceeded our expectations,” says prosthetist Courtney Moran.
Leslie Baugh should soon be able to test the use of his new arms at his home.

Last February, researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (Switzerland) developed a bionic hand prosthesis connected to electrodes. Thus, when the patient manipulates an object, sensors of the prosthesis are able to detect the tensions of the artificial tendons and to convert these signals into electrical impulses transmitted to the 4 electrodes grafted on the peripheral nerves of his arm.
The patient can therefore adjust his strength when gripping an object and adapt to its shape and texture. With this experience, the researchers managed, like those in Baltimore, to recreate sensations on a patient who had not felt anything in the hand for 9 years.