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Visual Prosthesis, Optic Nerve Approaches

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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

Synonyms

Neural interface; Prosthetic device; Visual prosthesis

Definition

An optic nerve-based visual prosthesis is one type of viable visual prosthetic device, potentially allowing those with profound vision loss to have a usable level of vision. Visual impairment usually arises from degenerative diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). An implantable microelectronic device can be used to electrically stimulate the optic nerve with surface or penetrating electrodes for vision recovery. The axon bundles could be stimulated and a larger visual field produced than through other approaches such as visual cortex prostheses and retinal prostheses.

Detailed Description

Since the human brain is extremely intricate and fragile, surgically implanting electrode arrays poses a high risk to the visual cortex. Although visual cortex prostheses were put forward firstly, it has always imposed great psychological pressure on the patient. A visual...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Laser Medicine and Bio-Photonics, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao-Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Qiushi Ren

Authors
  1. Qiushi Ren
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qiushi Ren .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA

    Ranu Jung

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Ren, Q. (2014). Visual Prosthesis, Optic Nerve Approaches. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_664-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_664-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7320-6

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