Subretinal Microelectrode Arrays Allow Blind Retinitis Pigmentosa Patients to Recognize Letters and Combine them to Words
Eberhart
Zrenner1*,
R.
Wilke1,
K.
U.
Bartz-Schmidt1,
F.
Gekeler1,
D.
Besch1,
H.
Benav1,
A.
Bruckmann1,
K.
Stingl1,
H.
Sachs2,
U.
Greppmaier3,
A.
Harscher3,
S.
Kibbel3,
W.
Wrobel3,
A.
Kusnyerik4,
T.
Peters5,
B.
Wilhelm5 and
A.
Stett6
-
1
University of Tuebingen, Centre for Ophthalmology, Germany
-
2
Klinikum Friedrichstadt, Augenklinik, Germany
-
3
Retina Implant AG, Germany
-
4
Semmelweis University, Department of Ophthalmology, Hungary
-
5
STC Autonomous Nervous System and Safety Studies, Germany
-
6
NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute and the SUBRET Study Group, Germany
Eleven patients received subretinal implants, powered and controlled via a subdermal cable ending in a thin intraocular foil, placed transsclerally between the retinal pigment epithelium and the neuroretina. The tip of this foil carries two distinct arrays, a Multiphotodiode Array (MPDA) with 1500 electrodes, each electrode being controlled by an adjacent photodiode and an amplifier within a 3x3x0.1 mm chip, as well as a second array with 16 electrodes, for direct stimulation (DS). Subretinal multielectrode implants produce retinotopically correct patterns that allow recognition of individual letters, resolution of stripe up to 0.35 cycles/deg, differentiation of shades of grey as well as recorgnition of unknown objects and letters that can be combined to words. This clearly supports the feasibility of light sensitive subretinal multi-electrode devices for restoration of useful visual percepts in blind patients.
Keywords:
Blindness,
clinical study,
multielectrode arrays,
retinal implants,
Retinitis Pigmentosa
Conference:
2nd International Conference on NeuroProsthetic Devices (ICNPD-2010), Beijing , China, 27 Feb - 28 Feb, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Vision prosthetics
Citation:
Zrenner
E,
Wilke
R,
Bartz-Schmidt
KU,
Gekeler
F,
Besch
D,
Benav
H,
Bruckmann
A,
Stingl
K,
Sachs
H,
Greppmaier
U,
Harscher
A,
Kibbel
S,
Wrobel
W,
Kusnyerik
A,
Peters
T,
Wilhelm
B and
Stett
A
(2010). Subretinal Microelectrode Arrays Allow Blind Retinitis Pigmentosa Patients to Recognize Letters and Combine them to Words.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
2nd International Conference on NeuroProsthetic Devices (ICNPD-2010).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.09.00019
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Received:
14 Apr 2010;
Published Online:
14 Apr 2010.
*
Correspondence:
Eberhart Zrenner, University of Tuebingen, Centre for Ophthalmology, Tuebingen, Germany, ezrenner@uni-tuebingen.de