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The overall dysfunction optic nerve and the associated nervous connections around are often considered as one of the primary reason why people are blind. Leading a life without vision is not just tough but very challenging but a new study associated with optic nerve stimulation suggest it could change the course of suffering.
A study (R) conducted by the researchers from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne are working to find new ways around that will help provide direct visual signals to the blind people with the salient stimulation of the optic nerve. This specifically conducted study does make use of a brand new form of neural electrode which is capable of providing with direct and distinct signals.
The study has been conducted in collaboration of the scientists from the EPFL in Switzerland and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Italy. The technology that they are developing crosses the eyeball completely and in turn, signals by sending direct messages to the brain.
The primary reason why this does work is because of the fact that it directly triggers the optic nerve with the help of a new form of intraneural electrode named as the OpticSELINE. The study was conducted on rabbits and did provide with beneficial results and was then published in the Nature Biomedical Engineering.
Silvestro Micera, EPFL’s Bertarelli Foundation Chair in Translational Neuroengineering, and Professor of Bioelectronics at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna is the one who suggested saying that the intraneural stimulation around could very well be a good and effective solution for the number of neuroprosthetic devices that will come in handy for both the sensory as well as the motor functions too.
According to Micera, the translational potentials behind this specific process are also being expected to have promising results on the same altogether.
If the statistics are to be believed, it is suggested that blindness impacts over 39 million people across the world. There are a number of factors that could very well be behind the condition, predominantly trauma, genetics, retinal detachments, glaucoma, cataract and even the advent of infection and inflammation around the eyes or the visual cortex. It has also been clarified that some types of blindness can be recovered using medical procedures but the permanent condition is what needs immediate help.
The main idea to help people from blindness is to produce phosphenes which are described as the simple sensation of seeing light around in the form of white pattern without actually seeing them. The retinal implants which were developed to help blind people does suffer from one problem which is the exclusion criteria.
What this insinuated is that, say, half a million people across the world have lost their vision because of the condition of Retinitis pigmentosa which is a genetic disorder but out of so many people, only a handful, rather a few hundred are eligible for the retinal implants. There could be a number of clinical reasons that could be causing the problem but the exact reason behind the same is still not known. Another possible road to treatment is that of the brain treatment of the visual cortex but it is definitely a very risky process.
A new intraneural solution named as priori is the one which is believed to help cut out the possible shortcomings in terms of the exclusion criteria. The main reason why this has beneficial impacts is because of the fact that it keeps the brain and the optic nerve pathway intact and doesn’t impose any kind of lesions that many people are often exposed to.
Diego Ghezzi, EPFL’s Medtronic Chair in Neuroengineering suggested saying that the primary reason why the trial for the stimulation of the optic nerve back in the 1990s failed is because of the fact that they used the cuff nerve electrodes back in the days. The main problem with these electrodes is the fact that they are quite rigid and have the tendency to move around a lot. This is what ends up causing instability with the electrical stimulation of the nerve fibers around.
This led to making it very difficult for the patients to interpret the stimulations around, owing to the fact that they kept seeing something different every single time. Adding to that, the selectivity owing to the recruited superficial fibers further caused a hindrance through the problem.
The scientists believed that intraneural electrodes can very well be the answer to providing the blind people with rich visual information. Additionally, they are a lot more stable and won’t be moving around quite a lot, thus further enhancing its effectiveness through the treatment process. Unlike the cuff electrodes which are placed around the nerve surgically, the intraneural electrodes are mainly do pierce through the nerve.
The OpticSELINE electrode has been made with the contribution of an entire team with Ghezzi and Micera which consists of an electrode array consisting of 12 electrodes. To test out its efficacy, the scientists also tested it out by stimulating the optic nerve with the same. They also simultaneously decoded a specific and elaborated algorithm to decode multiple of the cortical signals.
For now, the scientists are assured that the intraneural stimulation of the optic nerve can have beneficial impacts on inducing better impacts on the visual informative patterns. They are now waiting to go forward with the clinical trials to get a better perspective on the same situation and thus help in gaining a better perspective.