For the first time, the study directly measured activity of individual motor neurons in the spinal cord and linked their signal patterns to specific movement intentions as the phantom arm was imagined moving.

Oskar Aszmann and colleagues view this as a critical step toward next-generation prostheses with wireless, real-time neural interfaces and more natural control.

The work lays the groundwork for a bioscreen system that visualizes neural patterns and for wireless implants that transmit nerve signals in real time to prosthetic devices.

A key outcome is the concept of a bioscreen that visualizes neural movement patterns, serving as a foundation for future prostheses and the development of wireless implants that transmit nerve signals in real time to bionic hands or other assistive systems.

The participants had undergone targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) to redirect remaining nerves to intact muscles, creating neural interfaces for signal retrieval.

The researchers demonstrated precise identification of nerve signals underlying actions such as finger stretching and wrist bending, suggesting these signals can be used to control artificial limbs more naturally and intuitively.

The nerve signals are obtained after targeted muscle reinnervation, a surgical procedure that redirects residual nerves to still-present muscles to create interfaces for neural signal retrieval.

This work shows that complex movement intentions remain intact in the nervous system post-amputation and can be mathematically reconstructed, enabling more natural and intuitive control of prosthetic devices.

Analysis showed that complex movement intentions are preserved post-amputation and can be mathematically reconstructed, enabling finer control of bionic devices.

Thirty-channel? Actually forty-channel microelectrodes were implanted in reinnervated muscles of three arm amputee participants to capture motor neuron activity and link it to specific movement intentions.

Researchers from the Medical University of Vienna and Imperial College London report a new method to precisely detect nerve signals from remaining nerves in arm amputees and use them to control a bionic prosthesis, as published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.