Scientists made notable progress with artificial retina implants, creating hope for those suffering from Macular Degeneration (also known as AMD or ARMD), one of the most common causes of blindness in the world

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Scientists from Stanford University and Bar-Ilan University recently published an article in the highly regarded science journal Current Biology, sharing their amazing discovery signifying that the brain knows how to integrate natural and artificial vision while maintaining processing information that is necessary for vision.

ARMD is an eye disease that is associated with a decrease of visual acuity as a result of damaged cone cells in the macula, the central part of the retina. Patients suffering from ARMD usually do not become completely blind as their peripheral field of vision remains.

It is possible to implant a synthetic retina in case of severe damage to the photoreceptor layers in someone's biological retina. Artificial retinas are built from incredibly small electrodes (smaller in diameter than a human hair). Activating these electrodes leads to electrical stimulation of the surviving retinal cells and results in partial visual restoration. ARMD patients with an artificial retina maintain a mixture of synthetic central vision (created by the artificial retinas) and normal peripheral vision (created by their biological eyes).

It is crucial that we study this mixture of artificial and natural vision if we want to understand how to treat blindness. The main issue here is whether our brain is able to combine artificial and natural vision adequately.

This is where the Stanford and Bar-Ilan scientists come in. They found evidence that indicates that the brain does, in fact, knows how to combine these two types of vision.

Tamar Arens-Arad, one of the researchers, stated that they used a unique projection system that stimulated either natural vision, artificial vision, or a combination both, while simultaneously registering the cortical responses in rodents that received a subretinal implant made out of tiny solar cells and electrodes.

These groundbreaking results will help in restoring sight for ARMD patients, and they might also have implications for future brain-machine interface applications, according to Professor Yossi Mandel, the lead author of the study.

It will be interesting to see if we will combine artificial and natural processes to aid humans in the future. In any case, the Current Biology article is certainly worth a read if you are interested in the subject!

Source and further reading: Cortical Interactions between Prosthetic and Natural Vision