• Date and time: October 10, 2017 from
    11:00am –12:00pm
  • Location: BiocomplexityInstitute Conference Room
  • Speaker:  Daniel Rathbun, Ph.D.
    Principal Investigator
    Experimental Retinal Prosthetics Group. University of Tuebingen

Ashumanlifeexpectancyincreases,blindnessandvisualimpairmentduetodegenerationofthelightresponsivecellsoftheeye–photoreceptors–becomesevermoresignificant.Hundredsoflaboratoriesarepursuingsolutionstothisproblem.Todate,oneofthemostsuccessfulapproacheshasbeentheimplantationofdevices–likeTuebingen’sAlpha-AMSimplant–toelectricallystimulatetheremainingneuronalcellsoftheeye.Respondingtoinputfromanelectroniccameratheseneuronsthencommunicatevisualinformationtothebrain.Thusthenaturalvisionthathasbeenlosttoblindpatientsisreplacedwithbionicvision.
Thethinnetworkofneuronsliningtheinnersurfaceoftheeye,calledtheretina,hasmanyparallelinformationprocessingchannels.Asaresult,theganglioncellswhichpassinformationtothebrainconsistofdozensofdifferfunctionaltypes.Ensuringthatbionicretinalimplantsfullyexploitthisdiversityofinformationchannelshasbeenalong-termgoalofbionicvisionresearch.Topursuethisgoal,wehaveappliedthemethodsoflinearsystemanalysistoelectricalstimulationoftheretina.
Inthispresentation,IwilldescribethestatusoftheAlphaAMSretinalimplant.Then,throughasystematicevaluationoftheelectricalstimulusparameterspace,Iwilldiscusstheresponsivenessoftheretinalnetworktoprostheticstimulation.Next,IwilldescribehowtheExperimentalRetinalProstheticsGroupinTuebingenhasdevelopedalinearsystem-basedmethodformoreefficientlyprobingretinalresponsestoelectricalstimuli.Finally,Idiscussthenearfutureoftheseeffortsandtheirpotentialimpactonblindpatientssufferingfromdegenerativediseasessuchasretinitispigmentosaandmaculardegeneration.

Contact Anne Wailes for more information: awailes@vt.edu

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Rathbun_VT-SoN-Seminar-Flyer.pdf Tickling the Retina: Charting the Future of Bionic Sight Restoration
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