May 16 Bloomberg — Two people paralyzed by strokes were able to control robotic arms by using their thoughts, a medical advance that may lead to more-sophisticated prosthetic limbs.

One patient, a 58-year-old woman, used a robot arm to sip a drink on her own for the first time since her stroke 15 years before, according to a study published today in the journal Nature. The woman and a 66-year-old man grasped foam targets using the limbs in the clinical trial.

The researchers are seeking to mimic the spinal cord’s ability to send signals to paralyzed limbs, said John Donoghue, director of the Institute for Brain Science at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Monkeys have been able to manipulate the artificial arms in studies, and this trial brings the ideal of human use one step closer, he said.

For more on this story, visit: Robotic Arms Give Paralyzed Patients Ability to Grasp Objects | Bloomberg.