根据一项最新研究报道，一种叫做目标肌肉再次神经支配的新技术，能够帮助神经控制的假肢象真实的肢体一样活动。

芝加哥康复研究院(RIC; IL, USA)的研究人员，开发了一种新技术能够改善对机械假肢的控制。对1例24岁在左侧上肢肱骨颈处进行肢体切除的女性，进行了目标再次神经支配手术。再次神经神经支配手术进行神经再通路生长至合适的肌肉，将传递给切除肢体的信号传递给机械臂(通过体表电极via surface electrodes)。这就为患者提供了更好的肢体功能，该患者说她每日使用神经控制的假肢达数小时。

而且使用目标感知再次神经支配技术，手部感受神经与患者胸部皮肤形成再通路，因此患者触及此处皮肤时，她感觉到手被触及。这就最终让她“感觉”到触及假手一样，就仿佛她使用自己的手触摸一样。

这些研究结果发表在2007年2月3日《柳叶刀》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.