Intracortical Visual Prothesis

描述(由申请人提供)：这是一份修改后的申请 拟议的生物工程伙伴关系，以研究皮质内的战略 视觉假体。在过去的30年里，美国国立卫生研究院资助了 提供了电极技术的重大进步和建立 安全刺激视皮层的标准。然而，整合 电极制成可靠、互连的多通道阵列，可植入 多通道刺激器，以及基础视觉科学研究 确定皮质内假体的功能用途是缺乏的。 出于这个原因，以前的研究不足以作为考虑 是否有理由继续进行慢性人类植入。 拟议计划的总体目标是推动技术进步 足以为用户提供合理的可靠性和安全性预期 可植入的硬件，开发一个动物模型来执行关键的心理物理 和电刺激研究，并解决患者志愿者的心理问题 以及未来长期植入皮质内视觉的伦理问题 假肢。 具体目标是： 1.建立灵长类动物模型，用于测试大鼠的感觉反应 平行皮质内刺激电极的数量。 2.将早期人类关于点磷光感知的工作扩展到更一般的情况 利用其他V1调优属性(如方向)的方法 选择性，以创建更丰富的视觉功能集。这将通过以下方式完成 动物模型中的心理物理测试。 3.展示我们建议的安全性、有效性和电化学稳定性 使用体外和体内相结合的皮质内电极阵列 测试。 4.确定最佳物理配置，并设计 高可靠性植入式感应供电刺激器，连接到 外部计算机控制器。 5.制定安全的植入方法，包括术前和术后成像 技术，以优化和最小化种植手术的持续时间 程序。 6.建立进行未来人类植入的标准 对伦理和心理问题进行多方面的彻底检查。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a revised application for a proposed Bioengineering Partnership to research strategies for an intracortical visual prosthesis. During the past 30 years, the NIH has funded studies that provided significant advances in electrode technology and establishment of criteria for safe stimulation of the visual cortex. However, the integration of electrodes into reliable, interconnected multichannel arrays, implantable multichannel stimulators, and the fundamental visual science studies to determine the functional usefulness of an intracortical prosthesis are lacking. For this reason, previous studies are an insufficient basis for considering whether proceeding to chronic human implantation is warranted. The overall objectives of the proposed program are to advance the technology sufficiently to provide a reasonable expectation of reliability and safety for implantable hardware, develop an animal model to perform crucial psychophysical and electrical stimulation studies, and address patient-volunteer psychological and ethical issues of a future chronically-implanted intracortical visual prosthesis. The Specific Aims are: 1. Develop a primate animal model for testing the sensory responses to large numbers of parallel intracortical stimulation electrodes. 2. Extend earlier human work on point-phosphene perception to a more general approach that exploits other V1 tuning properties, such as orientation selectivity, to create a richer visual feature set. This will be done by psychophysical testing in the animal model. 3. Demonstrate safety, efficacy, and electrochemical stability of our proposed intracortical electrode arrays using a combination of in vitro and in vivo testing. 4. Determine the optimal physical configuration for, and design a high-reliability implantable inductively-powered stimulator, interfaced to an external computer controller. 5. Develop safe implantation methods, including pre- and post-operative imaging techniques, to optimize and minimize the duration of implant surgical procedures. 6. Establish criteria for proceeding to a future human implantation using a thorough multi-faceted examination of ethical and psychological issues.