Intracortical Visual Prosthesis Research - Approach and Progress

Following the early work of Brindley in the late 1960's, the NIH began intramural and extramural funding for stimulation of the primary visual cortex using fine-wire electrodes that are inserted into area V1 for the purpose of restoring vision in individuals with blindness. More recently researchers with experience in this project became part of our multi-institutional team with the intention to identify and close technological gaps so that the intracortical approach might be tested in humans on a chronic basis. Our team has formulated an approach for testing a prototype system in a human volunteer. Here, we describe our progress and expectations

[1]  F. Hambrecht,et al.  CRITERIA FOR SELECTING ELECTRODES FOR ELECTRICAL STIMULATION: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS , 1983, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[2]  D. McCreery,et al.  Histopathologic evaluation of prolonged intracortical electrical stimulation , 1986, Experimental Neurology.

[3]  Kurt Löwenstein,et al.  Symptomatologie und elektrische Reizung bei einer Schußverletzung des Hinterhauptlappens , 1918, Deutsche Zeitschrift für Nervenheilkunde.

[4]  Hubert Urban,et al.  Zur Physiologie der Occipitalregion des Menschen , 1937 .

[5]  John H. R. Maunsell,et al.  The projections from striate cortex (V1) to areas V2 and V3 in the macaque monkey: Asymmetries, areal boundaries, and patchy connections , 1986, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[6]  F. Krause Die Sehbahn in Chirurgischer Beziehung und die Faradische Reizung des Sehzentrums , 1924, Klinische Wochenschrift.

[7]  M. Mladejovsky,et al.  Artificial Vision for the Blind: Electrical Stimulation of Visual Cortex Offers Hope for a Functional Prosthesis , 1974, Science.

[8]  G. Brindley,et al.  The sensations produced by electrical stimulation of the visual cortex , 1968, The Journal of physiology.

[9]  R. Romo,et al.  Somatosensory discrimination based on cortical microstimulation , 1998, Nature.

[10]  Brindley Gs,et al.  The extent of the region of occipital cortex that when stimulated gives phosphenes fixed in the visual field. , 1972 .

[11]  N.R. Srivastava,et al.  A laboratory testing and driving system for AIROF microelectrodes , 2004, The 26th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[12]  W. H. Dobelle Artificial vision for the blind by connecting a television camera to the visual cortex. , 2000, ASAIO journal.

[13]  Giles S. Brindley,et al.  Sensory Effects of Electrical Stimulation of the Visual and Paravisual Cortex in Man , 1973 .

[14]  C. Kufta,et al.  Feasibility of a visual prosthesis for the blind based on intracortical microstimulation of the visual cortex. , 1996, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[15]  G. Loeb,et al.  Visual sensations produced by intracortical microstimulation of the human occipital cortex , 1990, Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing.

[16]  D. Hubel,et al.  Receptive fields and functional architecture of monkey striate cortex , 1968, The Journal of physiology.