Seeing Again ... With Visual Prosthetics



"The researchers Elisa Castaldi and Maria Concetta Morrone implanted the Argus II retinal prosthesis system in seven patients with retinitis pigmentosa, one of many retinal degenerative conditions that lead to blindness. The system sends small light pulses to the retina’s remaining cells, bypassing damaged photoreceptors, and stimulating the few remaining retinal cells. These cells then transmit this visual information along the optic nerve to the brain, allowing the person to perceive light patterns, and eventually see again. Before the surgery, all of the patients had been blind for 20 years. At the most, they had bare light perception."
“We tested the ability of our patients to detect big and high contrast shapes presented very briefly. When using the prosthetic implant, they reached up to 90 percent accuracy in this task.”  Elisa Castaldi
Via/More: mental_floss

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