Researchers from Case Western Reserve University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering have been awarded a National Institutes of Health stimulus grant of approximately $300,000 from a set of awards aimed at improving human health and economic development.
Dominique Durand, PhD, is working with graduate student Brian Wodlinger and math professors Daniela Calvetti, PhD, and Erkki J. Somersalo, PhD, to create a system that would enable an amputee to control a prosthetic arm by thought.
Electrodes, wrapped around the nerves that controlled the lost arm, record signals from the brain. The signals are then sent to a computer where an algorithm sorts out the various components of the signals and relays the information electronically to activate the elbow, wrist, and hand of a prosthetic arm as the patient imagines the movement.
“This technology could also be useful in patients who have suffered a spinal cord injury or stroke,” Durand said.
