Engineering the Eye IV Restoring Vision

描述(申请人提供)：视力恢复一直是视力研究的目标。自17世纪以来，人们对它进行了零星的研究，但当刺激电极阵列被植入大脑时，它首次产生了有效的视力恢复，最初是由布林德利在1968年，随后由威廉·多贝尔在20世纪80年代。从那时起，各种恢复视力的方法得到了迅速的发展，其中大多数只在实验室动物身上进行了检查。这些方法包括将干细胞植入视网膜和将光门通道插入视网膜内 神经元。然而，最近影响最大的修复方法是在视网膜下方或上方植入电子刺激设备，这种方法最近在欧洲获得了CE Mark批准，在美国获得了FDA的批准。在开发视力恢复技术方面的快速进展导致了关于每种方法所面临的技术挑战的会议和出版物。然而，对于哪种方法最能达到视力恢复的目标，很少有直接的比较。涉及不同方法的研究小组之间的讨论在一定程度上受到每种方法的独特限制。例如，植入电子视网膜假体在盲人身上是例行公事，尽管许多平行的研究仍在继续检查对实验室动物视网膜神经节细胞的电子刺激。人类的感知可以很容易地进行测试，因此这种方法已被证明能够产生感知上的好处，而不像其他方法，如病毒载体和多能干细胞，这些方法在人类中涉及巨大的病理风险，因此主要在实验室动物中进行。另一方面，多能干细胞和使用光敏假体(如通道视紫红质)可能提供比电子假体更重要的优势，但对这个问题的分析需要明确视力恢复的目标。第29届视觉科学中心研讨会将把视力恢复研究人员和低视力专家聚集在一起，他们研究诸如中心凹与周边视觉、运动与形状感知、高亮度视锥与低亮度视杆调节视觉等视觉能力对日常生活的重要性。它将根据损害视力的各种障碍以及部分或完全失明患者正常运作所需的信息类型来检查视力恢复。它还将考虑中央视觉通路在恢复视力中所起的作用，早期视觉发育改变所导致的恢复的局限性，以及随着患者适应他们的视觉假体，皮质可塑性在改善视觉感知方面的重要性。会议还将为学生和博士后提供机会以海报形式展示他们的工作，并将为希望参加并介绍他们工作的最好的学生和博士后提供竞争性的旅行奖学金。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Restoration of vision has long been a goal of vision research. It has been studied sporadically since the 1700s, but first produced effective vision restoration when arrays of stimulating electrodes were implanted into the brain, initially by Brindley in 1968 and subsequently by William Dobelle in the 1980s. Since that time, there has been rapid development of a wide range of methods for vision restoration, most of which have been examined only in laboratory animals. These include such diverse approaches as implantation of stem cells into retina and the insertion of light-gated channels into inner retinal neurons. The restoration method that has had the most impact recently, however, is the implantation of electronic stimulation devices just below or above the retina, an approach which recently received CE Mark approval in Europe and FDA approval in the United States. The rapid progress in developing vision restoration technologies has resulted in conferences and publications on technical challenges facing each approach. However, there has been little direct comparison of which methods best meet the goals of vision restoration. Discussion between research groups involved with different approaches has been limited in part by the unique constraints on each methodology. For example, implantation of electronic retinal prostheses is routinely performed in blind humans, although much parallel research continues to examine electronic stimulation of retinal ganglion cells in laboratory animals. Human perception can be easily tested, thus this approach has been shown to produce perceptual benefits, unlike other methods such as viral vectors and pluripotent stem cells that involve great risks of pathology in humans and have therefore been conducted largely in laboratory animals. On the other hand, pluripotent stem cells and use of light sensitive prosthetics such as channelrhodopsin might provide important advantages over electronic prostheses, but analysis of this question requires clear identification of the goals of vision restoration. The 29th Symposium of the Center for Visual Science will bring vision restoration researchers together with low vision specialists who study the importance for daily living of such visual capabilities as: foveal versus peripheral vision, motion versus form perception, and high luminance cone versus low luminance rod mediated vision. It will examine vision restoration in light of the variety of disorders that damag vision and the type of information that partially or totally blind patients need to function normaly. It will also consider the role played by central visual pathways in restoring vision, limitations t recovery resulting from alteration of early visual development, and the importance of cortical plasticity in refinement of visual perception as patients adapt to their visual prosthesis. The conference will also provide an opportunity for students and post-docs to present their work in poster sessions, and will make competitive travel fellowships available to the best of the students and post- docs who wish to attend and present their work.