Simulation of thalamic prosthetic vision: reading accuracy, speed, and acuity in sighted humans.

ABSTRACT: The psychophysics of reading with artificial sight has received increasing attention as visual prostheses are becoming a real possibility to restore useful function to the blind through the coarse, pseudo-pixelized vision they generate. Studies to date have focused on simulating retinal and cortical prostheses; here we extend that work to report on thalamic designs. This study examined the reading performance of normally sighted human subjects using a simulation of three thalamic visual prostheses that varied in phosphene count, to help understand the level of functional ability afforded by thalamic designs in a task of daily living. Reading accuracy, reading speed, and reading acuity of 20 subjects were measured as a function of letter size, using a task based on the MNREAD chart. Results

SUBMITTER: Vurro M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4219440 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature