Biomimetic Posture Sensing and Feedback for Proprioception

Kinesthesia is a sense of body posture and motion that arises from the interactions among the musculoskeletal system, a rich set of biological proprioceptors and the sensorimotor nervous system that mediates between them. This paper describes implantable sensor modalities to replace normal proprioceptors in feedback control. They can be packaged into miniature, wireless neural stimulators called BIONstrade. Their digitized signals can be transmitted efficiently to the external control system, which must then mediate between the sensing and stimulation functions in the available set of implants. This interaction will be perceived by the user of the prosthesis through residual sensory modalities such as proprioceptors in muscles and joints still under voluntary control and direct vision, as well as by a sense of effort in issuing commands to the prosthesis. These rich sources of information may be expected to induce a sense of kinesthesia similar that associated with manipulation of mechanically active tools and prosthetic limbs, perhaps obviating the need for more direct presentations of sensory data to the central nervous system