Recently, Lesie Baugh, who lost both his arms to a freak electrical accident forty years ago, was able to move both his prosthetic limbs to perform daily tasks with just his mind! We have seen in the past one limb being moved, but moving both has never happened before.

Moving both of Leslie’s limbs with just thought was a two step process:

1. A surgical procedure known as targeted muscle reinnervation is done first. This surgery reassigns nerves that once controlled the limb. This reassignment is vital for the mind to interact directly with the prosthetic limbs.

2. After the surgery, researchers worked with Leslie to identify which muscles of his contracted, and how well they interacted with each other. This is necessary to find patterns and to calibrate the limbs so they respond to the right signals.

Once the pattern recognition was done, Leslie was fitted with a custom socket that connected his limbs directly to his reinnervated nerves. Using his mind, he could do basic tasks like lifting a glass from one shelf and putting it on another, and grip a ball and move it to a different location. 

The next step is to have Leslie use his limbs in the “outside world” and see how it works for him. He desires to use it for simple things like putting change in a pop machine and getting soda out of it.

The researchers who have been helping Leslie think that this is just the beginning, and that the next 5 – 10 years will bring wonders to the world of prosthetics.

Watch the video below to see Leslie control his limb with his mind, and hit the source link for more details.