根據一項最新研究報道，一種叫做目標肌肉再次神經支配的新技術，能夠幫助神經控制的假肢象真實的肢體一樣活動。

芝加哥康復研究院(RIC; IL, USA)的研究人員，開發了一種新技術能夠改善對機械假肢的控制。對1例24歲在左側上肢肱骨頸處進行肢體切除的女性，進行了目標再次神經支配手術。再次神經神經支配手術進行神經再通路生長至合適的肌肉，將傳遞給切除肢體的信號傳遞給機械臂(通過體表電極via surface electrodes)。這就為患者提供了更好的肢體功能，該患者說她每日使用神經控制的假肢達數小時。

而且使用目標感知再次神經支配技術，手部感受神經與患者胸部皮膚形成再通路，因此患者觸及此處皮膚時，她感覺到手被觸及。這就最終讓她“感覺”到觸及假手一樣，就仿佛她使用自己的手觸摸一樣。

這些研究結果發表在2007年2月3日《柳葉刀》之上。

Prosthetic Arm Moves Like A Real Limb
 
A new technique called targeted muscle reinnervation allows a neuro-controlled prosthetic arm to move as if it is a real limb, reports a new study.

Researchers at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC; IL, USA) have developed the new technique that offers improved control of a motorized prosthetic arm. They consequently conducted targeted reinnervation surgery on a 24-year old woman with a left arm amputation at the humeral neck. The reinnervation procedure allowed the re-routed nerves to grow into the appropriated muscle and direct the signals that they used to send to the amputated arm to the robotic arm (via surface electrodes) instead. This gave the patient better functional movement in her arm, and she reported using her neuro-controlled prosthesis for many hours a day.

Furthermore, using targeted sensory reinnervation, the sensation nerves to the hand were re-routed to a patch of skin on the patient's chest, so that when the patient is touched on this skin, she feels that her hand is being touched. This should eventually let her 'feel' what she is touching with an artificial hand, as if she were touching it with her own hand.

The results were published in the February 3, 2007, issue of The Lancet.