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Review
. 2018 Aug 13:4:12.
doi: 10.1186/s42234-018-0013-8. eCollection 2018.

Development of visual Neuroprostheses: trends and challenges

Eduardo Fernandez  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Development of visual Neuroprostheses: trends and challenges

Eduardo Fernandez. Bioelectron Med. .

Abstract

Visual prostheses are implantable medical devices that are able to provide some degree of vision to individuals who are blind. This research field is a challenging subject in both ophthalmology and basic science that has progressed to a point where there are already several commercially available devices. However, at present, these devices are only able to restore a very limited vision, with relatively low spatial resolution. Furthermore, there are still many other open scientific and technical challenges that need to be solved to achieve the therapeutic benefits envisioned by these new technologies. This paper provides a brief overview of significant developments in this field and introduces some of the technical and biological challenges that still need to be overcome to optimize their therapeutic success, including long-term viability and biocompatibility of stimulating electrodes, the selection of appropriate patients for each artificial vision approach, a better understanding of brain plasticity and the development of rehabilitative strategies specifically tailored for each patient.

Keywords: Artificial vision; Blindness; Brain plasticity; Phosphene; Restoration of sight.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestThe author is working on the development of a cortical visual neuroprosthesis for the blind.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Examples of patterned phosphenes. a: Possible perception generated by stimulating simultaneously 4 electrodes arranged as a square. b: The neural plasticity of the visual system can contribute to ever-improving correlation between the physical world and evoked phosphenes. Immediately after implantation the evoked phosphenes are likely to induce a poor perception of an object (the letter “E” in this example). However, appropriate learning and rehabilitation strategies will contribute to provide concordant perceptions
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Main approaches for the design of a visual prosthesis. a Schematic diagram of a retina cross-section showing three methods of stimulating the output cells of the eye: 1, Epiretinal; 2, Subretinal and 3, Suprachoroidal. b Optic nerve based visual prosthesis. c Stimulation of the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus (LGN). d Cortical approach. In general, all the approaches share a common set of components: a camera to capture images, generally mounted on more or less standard glasses; a second stage that transform the visual scene into patterns of electrical stimulation and transmits this information through a radio-frequency link to the implanted device, and an electrode array implanted at some level in the visual pathways which has to be located near the target neurons
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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