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  <h1>Prosthetics and the Brain</h1>

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  <h1>Full Paper:</h1>
  <p>   Everyone deserves a chance. Everyone deserves a chance to run a marathon, win a bike race, or at the very least do day to day tasks with ease. But, this isn’t so easy for everyone. Some are unfortunate enough to not have certain limbs, and therefore, need prosthetics to get these chances. The field of prosthetics is a very rapidly evolving one. Recently, there have been many innovations in the field of prosthetics. The most notable of these being brain interaction. Now, technology is being developed so that a person can not only control a prosthetic limb with their brain, but also feel things with prosthetic as if it was their own. This paper will cover what prosthetics are, what they have been like in the past, and what they are like today. </p>
  <p>   According to the Oxford Dictionary, prosthetic means “Denoting an artificial body part, such as a limb, a heart, or a breast implant.” This paper will mostly be referring to limbs such as arms and legs and parts of limbs such as hands and feet. </p>
  <h2>History</h2>
  <p>   In the past, prosthetics have taken many forms. Until the early 1500s, prosthetics were usually made of mostly wood, bronze, or copper. They were mostly peg legs, hooks, or hands and feet made to emulate real ones. None of these were able to move independently from the rest of the limb. In the 1500s, the first leather prosthetics were introduced. There were also prosthetics with joints and prosthetic hands that could be manipulated by the other hand. At this point, harnesses used to attach the prosthetic to the limb were introduced. Then, in the 1800s some basic manipulatable prosthetics were made. These had springs that simulated tendon-like movement. In 1912, the first aluminum prosthetic was made. After the Civil War, and World War I, the need for prosthetics became much greater. Because of this, prosthetic technology greatly improved, making it closer to what it is today.</p>
  <h2>Current Prosthetics</h2>
  <p>   Today, prosthetics are made out of mostly out of plastics, aluminum, and composites. Thanks to modern robotics and neurosciences, prosthetics are evolving into very advanced machines, which have the potential to be controlled by the brain. The brain can also use the prosthetics to feel, similar to a real body part.</p>
  <p>   In early 2016, biomedical engineers from John Hopkins Medicine were able to successfully remap a person's brain to control a prosthetic hand for the first time ever (McMains, 2016). With this method, the person was able to move individual fingers of the prosthetic hand, instead of his own hand. To do this the researchers did preliminary brain mapping to find out what parts of his brain controlled individual fingers. They then inserted a series of 128 electrode sensors in these certain parts of this brain. Initially, this method had 76% accuracy. They then tried coupling the pinkie and the ring finger because most people move them together anyways. This made the accuracy level jump up to 88%, meaning 88% he could move the fingers as prompted. The whole experiment took under two hours and took no prior training. This would be a major leap in prosthetics and how a disabled person navigates life. However, the biomedical engineers that conducted this experiment say it is still far off as a public treatment option.</p>
  <p>   These advances are revolutionary; however, the previously discussed prosthetic hand is very different from a natural hand in one key way--feel. This hand can’t take sensory input. This relates to another study, conducted by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA - who were contracted by the US government to work on prosthetics after WWI and have continued to this day). In this study, DARPA placed an array similar to that from the previous study in their test subject’s brain (Sanchez, 2015). This time, they reprogrammed it so that he could feel which mechanical finger was being touched. They then blindfolded him and touched individual fingers. He could tell which finger was being touched with almost 100% accuracy. Later, they even tried touching two fingers without telling him first. He realized and asked them if they were playing a trick on him. This level of accuracy in feeling from a prosthetic is important, not only important in having it feel natural, but also to give the hand and the brain the sensory input it needs to perform precise movements and tasks.</p>
  <h2>Application</h2>
  <p>   After the first experiment was conducted, it led to another question. How can this be applied? The next month, in March 2016, an attempt to answer this was made. This experiment was created by Ortiz Catalan, in 2016. It combined the technology from the previous two studies to create a prosthetic that is as natural as possible. To do this, they developed another important technology, allowing the prosthetic to be connected to the bone, the nerves, and the tendons. To do this, they gave the man surgery to setup a titanium implant to connect the bone to the prosthetic and to setup electrodes to connect the muscles and the nerves to the prosthetic. They then installed it. This all resulted in making a very natural prosthetic, which had a permanent arm, tactile feedback, and could be controlled by the brain. The only drawback to this treatment is minor discomfort in the arm, which is claimed to be minor compared to the gains. Dr. Ortiz Catalan, one of the researchers involved in this study, says that he hopes this will become standard treatment, and eventually the prices will fall (Catalan, 2016).</p>
  <h2>Conclusion</h2>
  <p>   This new level of prosthetics begins to make everyday tasks much more manageable. A person with these advanced prosthetics can go beyond simple tasks, and do more precise human tasks like holding hands with a loved one, typing an essay, or catching a ball. It’s amazing that health care has gotten good enough in our world so that we can live through serious medical injuries, even through loss of a limb, and are still able to maintain normal lives with the help of advanced prosthetics. </p>

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