The Nervous System: Ted Talk with Todd Kuiken, A prosthetic arm that "feels"

"From an engineering standpoint, this is the greatest challenge one can imagine: trying to restore the most incredible machine in the universe." is something that Todd Kiuken said. What this means is that the nervous system and brain do so much it's incredible. The brain is like a power house and controls all bodily functions. The brain is responsible for all the complex parts and pathways that all come together to perform a specific function.

Todd Kuiken is a biomedical engineer that dedicates his time in finding new effective machines that help people that have arm amputations. His goal is to be able to create a machine that makes movement of the prosthetic arm simple. In the TED talk Todd Kuiken: A prosthetic arm that “feels” he begins by explaining what happens to the amputee patient when one loses a limb, and the odd effects that come from it known as Phantom Limb. Kuiken goes into detail over older prosthetic limbs compared to his newly engineered prosthetic. Kuiken uses the nerves remaining after an amputation to control an artificial limb. Places in the sensory brain are designated to certain areas of the body so for example, when one’s arms is amputated there is still a place in the brain for the arm. Although there is not an arm there to feel anything, because there is still a designated area in the brain for that limb it can still feel and touch. Once the brain starts to realize that there is not an arm there anymore to feel things other parts of the body take over that designated part of the brain. For example, in the video a man had lost his arm, but after awhile he started to feel his phantom limb in his chest! How crazy! The chest part of the brain had taken over for the arm to compensate for the lost limb. Kuiken has found a way to use this mind blowing fact to help amputees with their prosthetic arms. Using the phantom limb nerves and feelings the patients using his prosthetic can now feel through their prosthetic limb. I think this is soo mind blowing!!? Like who could have thought to ever make a prosthetic arm? Not only that, but to the point where it has sensations to it!!