• Question: How do you get the brain signals to make the artificial limbs move?

    Asked by Turtles420 to Ana, Daniel, Todd, Zach on 16 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Zach Welshman

      Zach Welshman answered on 16 Mar 2017:


      Well there is the exciting area called optogenetics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optogenetics) which basically means using light to control cells for example muscle cells, its akin to fibre optic broadband. These muscle nerves can be described a series of electrical signals that can be converted to movement. This technology is a long way off, but has been demonstrated useful in rats to excite parts of the brain associated with positive reinforcement

    • Photo: Daniel Morse

      Daniel Morse answered on 17 Mar 2017:


      Zach has answered it pretty well – I’ll leave that one to him, I cant add anything of value!

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