Restoring sight with retinal prostheses

Restoring sight in blind cavefish

which sleep uni-hemispherically or bi-hemispherically depending on the context [3], captive cetaceans almost never sleep bilaterally [ ,8,9] even when they are motionless [ 0]. Unraveling how marine mammals manage the inherent tradeoff [3] between wakefulness and sleep will require the development of procedures for observing eye closure and other physiological variables, including EEG, in free-...

Retinal prostheses for the blind.

INTRODUCTION Using artificial means to treat extreme vision impairment has come closer to reality during the past few decades. The goal of this research has been to create an implantable medical device that provides useful vision for those patients who are left with no alternatives. Analogous to the cochlear implants for some forms of hearing loss, these devices could restore useful vision by c...

Restoring sight to the millions--the Aravind way.

Restoring natural sensory feedback in real-time bidirectional hand prostheses.

Hand loss is a highly disabling event that markedly affects the quality of life. To achieve a close to natural replacement for the lost hand, the user should be provided with the rich sensations that we naturally perceive when grasping or manipulating an object. Ideal bidirectional hand prostheses should involve both a reliable decoding of the user's intentions and the delivery of nearly "natur...

Retinal Development: Second Sight Comes First

Mammals are functionally blind at birth because responses to rod and cone photoreceptor activation are immature. Recent studies show that the newborn retina is nevertheless sensitive to light. Indeed, intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells are present from birth and already make functional connections with the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the site of the central circadian clock.