Restoring Motion

Prostheses, The Paralympics,  and Neuroprostheses

 

        In 2013, Dr. Andrew Fuglevand and his colleagues published an astonishingly science-fiction-esque paper. Dr. Fuglevand has developed a more efficient way for transdermal neuromuscular electrodes to innervate muscle for the purposes of use restoration in paralytics, as well as assistive activation in physical therapy. The neuromuscular junction is one of the most fascinating parts of the nervous system, the anatomical moment in which chemical signals are converted into motion, thoughts, desires. Acetylcholine become a punch, or a stroke of the leg. Dr. Fuglevand's paper further advances the field of neuroprostheses, the field through which artificial neuromuscular junctions are created, and electrical impulses from the brain can be sent to intramuscular electrodes, replacements for atrophied or malformed nerves. 

    For Johannes Floors, this innately human experience of motion, sweating, competition, was thought to be out of reach. Mr. Floors was born with a congenital birth defect, one that cause both of his fibula to generate incorrectly and caused him immense pain as he learned to walk and stand. Johannes had his lower legs amputated voluntarily when he was in high school, and reclaimed his ability to feel the wind in his hair. Currently, Mr. Floors is the fastest living being on prostheses, with a 400m dash time of  45.78 seconds. The world record holder, Wayde Van Niekirk, was born with both legs and is only 2 seconds ahead of Mr Floors. In the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics, Johannes Floors won gold in the 400m dash event. The difference from his gold medal to 4th place was 0.076 seconds.

    Johannes's story is one shared by thousands. Prostheses are not only rehabilitating those born with congenital defects, but they are empowering them to excel. To achieve the highest reaches of their potential, to come within 2 seconds of being the fastest 400m dasher on the planet, after being born with misshapen feet. It is clear that prostheses in general are refining humanity, allowing for those given a genetic disadvantage not only to be able to overcome it, but to excel in the field in which they were fated to be unable to participate in. 

    The company responsible for this, in large part, is Ottobock. Ottobock is a German manufacturing company responsible for creating the carbon fiber blades on which Johannes Floors and many others have reclaimed their speed, but they did not stop at flexible blades. Ottobock recently patented the first jointed at the knee prosthetic, one that would potentially allow even transfemoral above-knee amputees to compete in the Paralympics. Neuroprostheses are currently banned in the Paralympics, but Martina Ciaroni, an Olympic long-jumper for Italy, uses Ottobocks recently patented jointed leg prostheses in her daily life. "The [prosthesis] has changed my life," she tells reporters at the World Intellectual Property Organization, "I've become mobile again, I can climb stairs like everybody else, I do not even have to think about it anymore." 

    Dr. Andreas Goppelt is the chief technological engineer at Ottobock cites this "relieved forgetting" as his main goal. "Every athlete who uses a prosthesis is at an inherent disadvantage when it comes to initiating movement patterns," he says, " the major disadvantage is that of proprioceptive feedback." Like Dr. Fuglevand, Dr. Goppelt has been conducting research in his laboratory at the Ottobock R&D facility in the field of neuroprostheses. "We know how to take electricity from your brain and make it move a muscle," he told reporters, "But it is making it go the other direction, from the spindle fiber to the brain, that is a challenge."  In Dr. Fuglevand's, paper, intramuscular electrodes are transdermal, and not typically meant to be left in the skin for extended periods of time but who knows what the future may hold. 

 Children born with one arm, or one leg are given an implant in their brain, and a proprioceptive prosthesis. Science may eventually provide those who we would call "handicapped" the ability to be normal, the ability to fit in, and as appears to be the case for Johannes and Martina, the ability to excel.