EAGER: Bioelectronic Color Vision

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Retinal prostheses have made a huge difference in the life of totally blind patients affected by retinal degenerative diseases. Denser electrode arrays to provide higher vision resolution to patients implanted with artificial retinas are underway, however there is a significant loss of spatial visual information with respect to normal vision. The addition of color vision would represent an immense improvement in the limited visual acuity achievable with current devices. Recent tests performed by one of the principal investigators with an artificial retina revealed that electrical stimulation can result in color perception. These findings indicate that it may be possible to encode color in a retinal prosthetic device. This observation will be explored to devise improved treatment options for patients affected by retinal degenerating conditions.Multiscale computational method will be used to further our understanding of the color coding sensitivity in the electrically stimulated degenerated retina. Experiments to characterize color perception in patients with an artificial retina implant as a function of key stimulation parameters will be performed. This work can lead to a generalized modeling framework capable of informing therapeutic interventions with unprecedented insights into degenerated retina function and their interface with biomimetic devices. In addition to the potential benefits to the 50 million people worldwide affected by retinal degeneration, the proposed work will train engineering students in a highly interdisciplinary research activity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.