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Neuroprosthetics
Pablo Enriquez
University of Texas at El Paso
English 1311
3/26/2014
Jorge Gomez











Community Problem Report: Neuroprosthetics 2

Abstract
Prosthetics has been an area of expertise that has been growing for the past fifty years,
and till today it continues to go further. Neuroprosthetics are computerized limbs that can be
connected to the body and controlled by the mind. This area of research is expensive and
requires funding from organizations, or scientists can work to receive grants that they may use to
pay for their research. The purpose for creating these prosthetics is to help those who have
suffered an injury that may have caused their lives to change, although from the looks of it, in the
future neuroprosthetics might even be used to enhance normal peoples abilities as well.


















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Neuroprosthetics
Introduction
From the wood crafted limbs of the Egyptians to the myoelectric prosthetics being used
and advanced up until today, prosthetics have helped individuals cosmetically and functionally.
Various prosthetics include cochlear implants, retinal prosthetics, smarthands, etc. Although
research for this area is very expensive, scientists or groups of scientists get their funding from
grants or donations from presentations such as TED Global. This report will cover how the
neuroprosthetic works, how research teams get funded, and who use neuroprosthetics.
Robotic Limbs
Neuroprosthetics are robotic limbs that when installed into your body can be controlled
as if it were a real body part. The wires from the prosthetic are
connected to the nerves on the stump of the limb it is being attached to,
creating a connection to the brain. Then after installation the nerves are
stimulated so that the brain receives messages through the nervous
system letting the brain know that the prosthetic is there. After the
recommended amount of time for therapy the brain should recognize the
prosthetic as a limb and then interpret it as the real deal. This kind of research has been
developing into a higher form of technology throughout the years, and still continues to get
better. As Carey says in her New York Times article In recent years neuroscientists have
developed implants that allow paralyzed people to move prosthetic limbs or a computer cursor,
using their thoughts to activate the machines (2011). There are two categories for prosthesis,
some are built for motor functions and some are built for sensory functions. Sensory functions
would include prosthetics that deal with the senses of the body such as sight, hearing, and touch.
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Motor functions are basically movement of the body, prosthetics that would work with paralysis
would fall under this category. One of the latest and biggest breakthroughs in this area of
research was the curing of paralysis. A neuroscientist named Gregoire Courtine and his team of
scientists and engineers from Switzerland, conducted a research project that lasted ten years.
After many failures but never giving up to try and cure a paralyzed lab rat, this team was able to
give this rat the ability to walk again. (Courtine, 2013). This kind of research takes an extremely
long amount of time, scientists and engineers need to be able to deal with a lot of failure and
have patience to fully understand how the prosthetic will work and then actually getting the
prosthetic too work.
Funding
Prominent sources of funding for prosthetic research include the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, the National
Institutes of Health, and grants and donations achieved through TED Global, and many more
corporations. When seeking to get funded or receive grants it can be very difficult to convince
these corporations to fund your research, they need to be
convinced and interested in the subject. A research team would
need to develop a research proposal and then apply to the
appropriate financier. Although in the Neuroscience area it is
fairly easy when you have a team of scientists, engineers, and
researches that have provided positive results like Gregoire Courtine and his research team from
Switzerland. A good example would be how James Cavuoto says in his article that businesses
like DARPA and National Academies look good because of what they promise to bring or what
they say in their themes. When done right you can receive excellent amounts of money for
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research, like the team from WPI that received 1million dollars. As stated in the Advanced
Healthcare Network A team of researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Worcester,
MA, will receive $1 million in federal and state grants to advance the critical development of
neuroprosthetics-next-generation artificial limbs that could one day be permanently implanted
and perform most of the movements and functions of natural limbs. (2008). These two different
articles are examples of how these research teams, firms or universities can get funded and
receive grants for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

People and prosthetics
The main purpose for these prosthetics are to help handicaps who were either born with a
disability or suffered an accident causing them to be handicapped. Scientists have already created
a machine that can connect to the
brain of a paraplegic woman
allowing her to control the machine or
move a cursor on a computer screen
all by using her thought. (Carey,
2012). In the future Scientists hope
that along with helping the
handicapped, technology will eventually be at the point where civilians can use prosthetics to
enhance normal human capabilities. Many ideas were generated immediately with this thought
like an eye that can give night vision or a chip in the brain that can download certain skills for
example the skill to play golf. (Marcus, 2014). These two articles agree with each other mostly
on creating these prosthetics for the handicapped and helping them to restore their lives to when
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they did not have a robot attached to them. Then Marcus from The Wall Street Journal brings
up the idea of improving human lifestyle aside from restoring it.

























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Conclusion
Based on my findings, I would recommend that scientists put more focus on the research
to cure paralysis and the rest of the unsolved injuries that work with the nervous system. I
recommend this because there has been a lot of time spent on restoring limbs and technology has
progressed so fast that even a prosthetic for the eye has been created, even more so a robotic
hand that can provide the feeling of touch. There is a lot of money provided in this field for
scientists, researchers, and engineers to create these prosthetics. On top of everything some
researchers are already thinking of future prosthetics that will improve normal lifestyles. Instead
of working on the idea of the enhanced human, research teams should continue on the issues
that handicaps have today, which in time could most likely provide more answers for more issues
and could probably provide more ideas to the subject of enhancing human capabilities.















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References
Carey, B. (2011). Memory implant gives rats sharper recollection. The New York Times,
Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/science/17memory.html?action=click&module=Search&re
gion=searchResults%230&version=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsi
tesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26modu
le%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry105%23%2FMemory+i
mplants+gives+rats+sharper+recollection&_r=0
Kwok, R. (2013). Neuroprosthetics: Once more, with feeling. nature, Retrieved from
http://www.nature.com/news/neuroprosthetics-once-more-with-feeling-1.12938
Carey, B. (2012, 05, 16). Paralyzed, moving a robot with their minds. The New York Times.
Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/science/bodies-inert-they-moved-a-robot-
with-their-minds.html
Healy, M. (2012). Recorded brain commands, sent to muscles, may circumvent paralysis. Las
Angeles Times, Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/18/news/la-heb-brain-
device-paralysis-20120418
Weiland, J. D., Wentai, L., & Humayun, M. S. (2005). Retinal prosthesis. Annual Review of
Biomedical Engineering, 7(1), p.361-c-4. Retrieved from http://encore.utep.edu:50080/ebsco-w-
b/ehost/detail?sid=6785c3fa-ee7d-4fdf-b459-
2c22ff363e02@sessionmgr198&vid=1&hid=112&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29w
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Marcus, G., & Koch, C. (2014). The future of brain implants. The Wall Street Journal, Retrieved
from
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304914904579435592981780528?mg=r
eno64
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Courtine, G. (2013, 06). The paralyzed rat the walked. TedGlobal. [Video podcast]. Retrieved
from https://www.ted.com/talks/gregoire_courtine_the_paralyzed_rat_that_walked
Cipriani, C., Controzzi, M., & Carrozza, M. C. (2011). The smarthand transradial
prosthesis. Journal of NeuroEngineering & rehabilitation (JNER), 8(1), 29-42. Retrieved from
http://encore.utep.edu:50080/ebsco-w-b/ehost/detail?sid=a3569f76-5b4e-4fee-b2ce-
cfbeaffbd996@sessionmgr112&vid=1&hid=112&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29w
ZT1zaXRl
Eveleth, R. (2014). When state-of-the-art is-second best. PBS, Retrieved from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/tech/durable-prostheses/