People with paralysis or
an amputation can already
use their minds to control
robotic limbs, helping to restore
their sense of independence, but
the motions are often clumsy and
unnatural. Researchers announced
in May that they created a neural
prosthetic that gives those with
artificial limbs finer, smoother
movements.
Standard neural prosthetics ferry
signals from the brain’s motion
control center, the motor cortex,
to a cable connected to a computer
controlling the limb. These signals
break down a physical task into
individual movements — like listing
the steps involved in grabbing your
coffee mug. But this team went
further upstream in the brain’s
signaling chain and used signals
from a patient’s posterior parietal
cortex (PPC).