Abstract
Since the 1950s, vision researchers have been working towards the ambitious goal of restoring a functional level of vision to the blind via electrical stimulation of the visual pathways. Groups based in Australia, USA, Germany, France and Japan report progress in the translation of retinal visual prosthetics from the experimental to clinical domains, with two retinal visual prostheses having recently received regulatory approval for clinical use. Regulatory approval for cortical visual prostheses is yet to be obtained; however, several groups report plans to conduct clinical trials in the near future, building upon the seminal clinical studies of Brindley and Dobelle. In this review, we discuss the general principles of visual prostheses employing electrical stimulation of the visual pathways, focusing on the retina and visual cortex as the two most extensively studied stimulation sites. We also discuss the surgical and functional outcomes reported to date for retinal and cortical prostheses, concluding with a brief discussion of novel developments in this field and an outlook for the future.
Highlights
Since the 1950s, vision researchers have been working towards the goal of restoring a functional level of vision to the blind
There are a variety of approaches to achieving this goal; a common technique is to electrically stimulate the visual pathways with a vision prosthesis, or ‘bionic eye’
Blindness resulting from retinal disease, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and inherited dystrophies such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP), often leaves the inner retina and optic nerve relatively intact, rendering sufferers of these conditions candidates for a retinal vision prosthesis
Summary
Philip M. Lewis,*†‡§ Lauren N. Ayton,k¶** Robyn H. Guymer,k¶** Arthur J. Lowery,‡§ Peter J. Blamey,†† Penelope J. Allen,k¶** Chi D. Luuk¶** and Jeffrey V. Rosenfeld*†‡§‡‡ Key words bionics, blindness, brain, prosthesis, retina, vision. P. M. Lewis PhD; L. N. Ayton PhD; R. H. Guymer PhD, FRANZCO; A. J. Lowery PhD, FTSE; P. J. Blamey PhD; P. J. Allen MBBS, FRANZCO; C. D. Luu PhD; J. V. Rosenfeld MD, FRACS. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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