While the robot now moves according to information gleaned from the study of living motion, the computerized arm must reach further. A team of engineers and scientists from Arizona State University is working to control the robotic arm by interpreting signals from the brain. If they are successful, the work could eventually lead to methods for replicating that control in the muscles of living subjects. Such a system would allow spinal cord lesions to be bypassed by rerouting nerve impulses. Spinal cord lesions disrupt two-way communication between the brain and the body's muscular structures.
Muscles do the same below the point of interruption.
But there is no middle, no point of connection. Other researchers have worked to establish computer-controlled stimulation systems to the nerves and muscles below the break. The ASU scientists are working to reconnect muscles from below the break directly to the brain. If they are successful, resulting limb motion would be significantly more real-time and natural in appearance. These systems involve electrodes that are implanted under the skin and wired to functioning muscle, which is then retrained to perform new tasks.