Present and future of retinal implants

• Autorzy: Hottowy P.
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

The retina is a key element of the visual system. The image captured by the eye is processed by the photoreceptors, specialized interneurons and finally by the ganglion cells that encode the visual information in sequences of the action potential and send this information to the brain. Some retinal diseases lead to loss of sight due to degeneration of the photoreceptors. However, the interneurons and the ganglion cells remain alive even in advanced stages of the disease, and keep the ability to process the visual information and send it out to the brain. Here comes the idea for visual prosthesis: replace the photoreceptors by a camera, deliver the visual information to the alive cells by stimulating them electrically, and it will propagate to the brain providing an artificial sight. The first generaion of the retinal prosthetic devices are already available for the patients. Unfortunately, one important limitation of current implants is low spatial resolution of the electrical stimulation. Large electrodes activate simultaneously large groups of neurons, what results in low resolution of the visual information. Furthermore, uncontrolled stimulation of different cell types makes it difficult for the brain to interpret the visual information, and unwanted stimulation of axons can further reduce the visual acuity. I will discuss design, performance and limitations of the current state-of-the-art prosthetic devices, as well as perspectives for development of next generation devices. I will also try to answer the following question: is it possible to build a retinal implant that could transfer to the brain visual information identical to that initiated in the healthy retina processing a complex visual scene? FINANCIAL SUPPORT: This work was supported by Polish National Science Centre grant DEC-2013/10/M/ NZ4/00268.

• Wydawca: -
• Czasopismo: Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis
• Rocznik: 2017
• Tom: 77
• Numer: Suppl.1
• Opis fizyczny: p.34

Twórcy

autor

Hottowy P.

• AGH University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, Cracow, Poland