Effect of irregular patterns of ellectrical stimulation pulses for retinal prosthethis

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24500581
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Rehabilitation science/Welfare engineering
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: SAWAI Hajime 大阪大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (20202103)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YAGI Tetsuya 大阪大学, 工学系研究科, 教授 (50183976) ; MIYOSHI Tomomitsu 大阪大学, 医学系研究科, 助教 (70314309)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 人工視覚 / 電気刺激 / 網膜 / 電位感受性色素 / 細胞外ユニット活動 / 視覚皮質 / 上丘

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It was previously shown that a retinal prosthesis-based on suprachoroidaltransretinal stimulation (STS) is feasible for restoring visual function to blind patients with outer retinal degeneration. However, it has been shown that long-lasting train of stimulation pulses can reduce electrically evoked responses in many animal experiments and clinical trials. In the present study, we examined if such reduction can be somewhat compensated by variable inter-pulse interval of train pulse for STS-based retinal prosthesis. In acute experiments with both intact and retinal degenerated rats, variable inter-pulse interval of train pulse increase multiunit neuronal activities of the superior colliculus, comparing with fixed inter-pulse interval, suggesting that pulse intervals of stimulus were critical to counteract diminishing electrically evoked phosphens during long lasting stimulation in various types of retinal prosthesis.

Free Research Field

感覚生理学