Abstract
Patients with retinal degeneration lose sight due to gradual demise of photoreceptors. Electrical stimulation of the surviving retinal neurons provides an alternative route for delivery of visual information. We developed subretinal photovoltaic arrays to convert pulsed light into bi-phasic pulses of current to stimulate the nearby inner retinal neurons. Bright pulsed illumination is provided by image projection from video goggles and avoids photophobic effects by using near-infrared (NIR, 880-915nm) light. Experiments in-vitro and in-vivo demonstrate that the network-mediated retinal stimulation preserves many features of natural vision, such as flicker fusion, adaptation to static images, and most importantly, high spatial resolution. Our implants with 70μm pixels restored visual acuity to half of the normal level in rats with retinal degeneration. Ease of implantation and tiling of these wireless arrays to cover a large visual field, combined with their high resolution opens the door to highly functional restoration of sight.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | 2015 7th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, NER 2015 |
Publisher | IEEE Computer Society |
Pages | 248-251 |
Number of pages | 4 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781467363891 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jul 2015 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | 7th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, NER 2015 - Montpellier, France Duration: 22 Apr 2015 → 24 Apr 2015 |
Publication series
Name | International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, NER |
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Volume | 2015-July |
ISSN (Print) | 1948-3546 |
ISSN (Electronic) | 1948-3554 |
Conference
Conference | 7th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, NER 2015 |
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Country/Territory | France |
City | Montpellier |
Period | 22/04/15 → 24/04/15 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015 IEEE.