How do prosthetics work? Do they connect to your nerves or is there some other way they track your movements to make motions?
In: Biology
Some don’t do anything. Some are controlled by sensors placed on your body. Where they go depends on what muscles you have left and whether or not they still work. Some could be as fancy as using brain implants.
I believe they have electrodes placed on the skin that can detect the nerves firing corresponding to particular muscles, which can be then translated into movement of prosthetics
I believe you are asking about a “robotic limb” like prosthetic.
Currently these do not connect to your nerves directly, that is still too advanced and difficult for current science, not to mention the extent of the injury that caused somebody to lose a limb is different person to person.
A lot of times its as simple as pads or electrodes which act like a button when you flex or move a muscle. In the case of a prosthetic arm the muscle you use to twist your arm might still be partially intact, and can press down on one or more pads. Depending on how the prosthetic is configured that can be how somebody opens or closes their hand.
Advanced prosthetic might have a programmable micro controller and sensors like accelerometers and gyros on them to determine the intentions of the wearer, and change what the pad does. Like raising the arm and waving it might be programed to make the fingers go into a waving hand position, while lowering the arm downward might make the pad function as a “grab” button.
Its an experimental field with many people trying many things to fit their needs. Personally a few years ago I met somebody involved with the designing of prosthetics who’s arm connected via blutooth to their phone, and they could change “presets” of what the pads did. Presets like making their hand do various social positions like a thumbs up, a wave, or giving the middle finger! Then they had presets to grab objects with various fingers.
Related question: anyone know if its possible prosthetics will, in the next few decades i guess, connect to nerve endings a la fullmetal alchemist?
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