Takufumi Yanagisawa Research Division, International Medical and Industrial Information Center, Osaka University, to reduce phantom limb pain, which is the pain of the lost part after losing limbs due to injury, by using a special artificial hand that reads the activity of the brain. The research team of the instructors was successful.The paper was published in the English scientific journal "Nature Communications".
According to Osaka University, Lecturer Yanagisawa and his colleagues read the activity of the brain with a sensor, developed a robot prosthesis that actually moves by paying attention to the movement of the hand, and how the pain of 10 patients changes by repeating the movement of this. I checked if it would be done.
Initially, the prosthesis was moved when the activity of the brain region corresponding to the lost hand was detected, but the result was unexpectedly increased pain.For this reason, when the area corresponding to the remaining hand was active, the setting was changed so that the artificial hand could move, and when the training was performed again, the pain decreased.
When the pain was alleviated, the area of the brain corresponding to the lost hand was less active.The research team believes that training can reduce pain in areas corresponding to lost limbs.
Phantom limb pain is said to be felt by 8% of people who have amputated limbs or have their limbs stuck due to nerve damage, and may be accompanied by severe pain.It is thought to develop because the brain is unable to respond to the loss of limbs.Lecturer Yanagisawa said, "This research is effective in alleviating phantom limb pain. I would like to combine this method with various other methods to develop a treatment method that can relieve pain in patients."