Publications (138) View all
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Article: Optimized single pulse stimulation strategy for retinal implants.
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ABSTRACT: Retinal implants offer prospects of vision restoration for some blind patients by eliciting visual percepts of spots of light called 'phosphenes'. Recently, a mathematical model has been developed that predicts patients' perception of phosphene brightness for current-driven electrical stimulation of the retina. This model is explored for different stimulation parameters on a single electrode, including safety and hardware limitations, to produce phosphenes of specified brightness. We describe a procedure to derive stimulation parameters to account for such constraints, and describe methods to construct optimal stimuli in terms of producing maximal perceived brightness and efficient generation of phosphenes of a given brightness by employing minimal energy. In both cases, it is found that the resulting optimized stimulation waveforms consist of a long stimulation period, and interphase delays between initial and charge-balancing phases.Journal of Neural Engineering 12/2012; 10(1):016003. · 3.84 Impact Factor -
Article: Heating of the Eye by a Retinal Prosthesis: Modeling, Cadaver and In Vivo Study
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ABSTRACT: In order to develop retinal implants with a large number of electrodes, it is necessary to ensure that they do not cause damage to the neural tissue by the heat that the electrical circuits generate. Knowledge of the amount of power that induces thermal damage will assist in development of power budgets for implants, which has a significant effect upon the design of the prostheses circuitry. In this study, temperatures were measured at multiple locations on the retina while the retina was heated in cadaver and in vivo preparations using a variety of prosthesis implantation sites. A finite element thermal model of the cat eye was also created and validated by the cadaver and in vivo tests, allowing for a much larger spectrum of thermal influences to be evaluated without additional animal experimentation. To ensure that retinal tissue temperatures are not increased by more than 2 °C, a 5 mm × 5 mm, suprachoroidally implanted heating element must not dissipate more than 135 mW (5.4 mW/mm<sup>2</sup>).IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering 03/2012; · 2.28 Impact Factor -
Conference Proceeding: Differential stimulation of ON and OFF retinal ganglion cells: A modeling study
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ABSTRACT: A model of the electrophysiological properties of ON and OFF retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) was constrained and validated using experimental data from the literature. Our simulations support experimental findings that differences in the magnitude of the T-type Ca<sup>2+</sup> current explain differences in the intrinsic electrophysiology of ON and OFF RGCs. The models are used to investigate the potential for differential stimulation of ON and OFF RGCs during neuroprosthetic stimulation with sinusoidal current. The model predicts that OFF cells fire preferential over ON cells in a frequency band around 10 Hz.Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2010 Annual International Conference of the IEEE; 10/2010 -
Conference Proceeding: Viability of the inner retina in a novel mouse model of retinitis pigmentosa
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ABSTRACT: Retinal prostheses aim to restore vision to patients who are blind from photoreceptor diseases such as Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). All implants target the neural cells in the inner retina, the retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Our research focuses on further understanding the disease process of RP during mid to late stages when total loss of photoreceptors has occurred and significant remodeling of inner retinal neurons has taken place. We have used a novel transgenic mouse, Rd1-FTL, to observe different degenerative stages of RP. Notably, in the aged retina we have evidence that there was gross inner retinal remodeling as well as glial dysfunction that occurred in confined regions in the central retina that worsened overtime. Consequently, the timing of implantation and location of the prosthesis both need to account for the state of the retina at different stages in the disease process.Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2010 Annual International Conference of the IEEE; 10/2010 -
Conference Proceeding: Thermal heating of a retinal prosthesis: Thermal model and in-vitro study
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ABSTRACT: In order to develop retinal implants with a large number of electrodes, it is necessary to ensure that they do not cause damage to the neural tissue by the heat that the electrical circuits generate. Knowledge about the threshold of the amount of power that induces thermal damage will greatly assist in development of power budgets for implants, which has a significant effect upon the design of implant circuitry. In this study, we developed and tested in-vitro equipment that can dissipate thermal energy in current prosthesis implantation sites while simultaneously measuring and recording temperature distributions at multiple locations along the retinal tissue. A finite element thermal model of the feline eye was also created and validated by the in-vitro tests allowing for a much larger spectrum of thermal influences to be evaluated without the additional cost of animal sacrifice.Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2010 Annual International Conference of the IEEE; 10/2010
