Development of a Technological Platform to Study the Neural Code for Vision

开发研究视觉神经编码的技术平台

• 批准号: 0515134
• 负责人: Joseph Rizzo
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-06-01 至 2010-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0515134&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Development; Technological; Platform; Study; Neural

One of the great challenges of neuroscience is to understand how nerve cells act synergistically to create perception, thought, and emotion. The PI has for the last 16 years directed the Boston Retinal Implant Project, the goal of which is to develop a prosthesis to restore vision to the blind. An extrapolation of this work strongly suggests that even a perfectly engineered device will not succeed in producing high quality vision. The missing factor is the knowledge of how to communicate with the central nervous system, of which the retina is a part. The neural code is complex; developing insights into its properties will occur gradually, and over a much longer period of time than this grant will cover. The PI's goals for this phase of the project are to develop platform technologies to advance the study of neural coding, and to perform learning experiments that will provide new information about the natural coding of the visual system and how artificial stimuli can be delivered to emulate natural responses. Using the existing strengths of his research group, the PI will build devices that will make it possible to record and wirelessly transmit neural responses from large regions of the retina or brain, with the ultimate goal of capturing these responses in awake animals as they roam freely within a test environment. Computational strategies will be used to compare neural responses that are generated by stimulating the retina with light to those generated by stimulating the retina with electricity delivered in the same geometric patterns. Learning algorithms will be used to adjust the patterns of electrical stimulation to emulate the natural light-induced responses. Collectively, these studies will provide new insights into properties of neural coding and how the natural responses of the brain can be emulated to create vision, and take us a few steps further along the path toward restoration of function to disabled patients.Broader Impacts: This work will increase the probability that a retinal prosthesis will one day restore useful vision to blind patients. Many millions of patients with age-related macular degeneration and another 1.6 million with retinitis pigmentosa suffer from blindness because of a relatively selective loss of photoreceptors. A retinal prosthesis could restore vision to such patients by directly stimulating the nerve cells that connect the eye to the brain. This hope will be realized only if proper communication strategies to deliver visual information to the brain are learned. This research will also train students in engineering and biomedical disciplines who will contribute to the emerging fields of neural coding, brain-machine interfaces and the science of learning.

神经科学的最大挑战之一是了解神经细胞如何协同作用来创造感知、思维和情绪。在过去的16年里，PI一直在指导波士顿视网膜植入项目，该项目的目标是开发一种能够恢复盲人视力的假体。这项工作的推断强烈表明，即使是一个完美的工程设备也不会成功地产生高质量的视觉。缺少的因素是如何与中枢神经系统沟通的知识，视网膜是中枢神经系统的一部分。神经密码是复杂的；对其特性的深入了解将逐步进行，而且需要比这笔拨款涵盖的时间长得多的时间。该项目这一阶段的目标是开发平台技术，以推进神经编码的研究，并进行学习实验，提供关于视觉系统的自然编码以及如何传递人工刺激以模拟自然反应的新信息。利用他的研究小组现有的优势，PI将建造能够记录和无线传输来自视网膜或大脑大片区域的神经反应的设备，最终目标是捕捉清醒动物在测试环境中自由漫游时的这些反应。计算策略将被用来比较通过用光刺激视网膜产生的神经反应和通过以相同几何图案传递的电刺激视网膜产生的神经反应。学习算法将被用来调整电刺激的模式，以模拟自然光诱导的反应。总而言之，这些研究将为神经编码的特性以及如何模拟大脑的自然反应来创造视觉提供新的见解，并带我们在为残疾患者恢复功能的道路上更进一步。广泛的影响：这项工作将增加视网膜假体有朝一日为盲人患者恢复有用视力的可能性。数以百万计的老年性黄斑变性患者和另外160万视网膜色素变性患者由于相对选择性的光感受器丧失而患上失明。视网膜假体可以通过直接刺激连接眼睛和大脑的神经细胞来恢复这类患者的视力。只有学习了将视觉信息传递到大脑的适当沟通策略，这一希望才能实现。这项研究还将培养工程和生物医学学科的学生，他们将为神经编码、脑机接口和学习科学等新兴领域做出贡献。