Visual prostheses based on high resolution brain stimulation

The goal of our project is to develop a therapy against almost all types of blindness. More specifically, we will develop a brain implant that can electrically stimulate the visual cortex at high resolution. The implant will be able to transmit a signal from a camera in an eyeglass frame worn by the patient to the primary visual cortex of the patient's brain, bypassing the patient's non-functioning eyes or visual nerves.The projects builds on our current research on high resolution electrode arrays for high resolution, long term neural interfacing, on our research of the visual cortex and on our research on neurosurgery and neuromodulation, respectively.In this project, we will (1) upscale our existing electrode array technology – which has already shown its merits in in vivo tests lasting up to 1 year – to a version with over 1000 contacts, suitable for the visual cortex (2) test these electrode arrays in the visual cortex of rhesus monkeys and optimize the simulation for building parameters (3) perform a short-term implantation test on a human patient during tumor resection surgery.

Keywords:vision, neural interfacing, neurostimulation

Disciplines:Biological system engineering not elsewhere classified, Neurophysiology, Neurosurgery