Multi-electrode stimulation evokes consistent spatial patterns of phosphenes and improves phosphene mapping in blind subjects.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Visual cortical prostheses (VCPs) have the potential to restore visual function to patients with acquired blindness. Successful implementation of VCPs requires the ability to reliably map the location of the phosphene produced by stimulation of each implanted electrode.

Objective

To evaluate the efficacy of different approaches to phosphene mapping and propose simple improvements to mapping strategy.

Methods

We stimulated electrodes implanted in the visual cortex of five blind and fifteen sighted patients. We tested two fixation strategies, unimanual fixation, where subjects placed a single index finger on a tactile fixation point and bimanual fixation, where subjects overlaid their right index finger over their left on the tactile point. In addition, we co

SUBMITTER: Oswalt D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8488973 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep-Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature