On the Use of Intraneural Transversal Electrodes to Develop Bidirectional Bionic Limbs

Abstract

The development of more effective approaches for controlling dexterous hand prostheses is an important area of research currently addressed by several groups with the aim of improving the quality of life of amputees. It is particularly important to establish a fast, intuitive, bidirectional flow of information between the user’s nervous system and the smart artificial device. Among the possible solutions to achieve this goal, interfaces with the peripheral nervous system, namely intraneural electrodes, are considered the most adequate choice. In this paper, the results achieved so far by using thin-film transversal intraneural electrodes for neural recording and stimulation are summarized. These findings show that these interfaces are a valuable solution for neural writing while long-term neural recording is still challenging. Further experiments are necessary to better understand how to address this issue.