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New Vision for Visual Prostheses

Developments of new strategies to restore vision and improving on current strategies by harnessing new advancements in material and electrical sciences, and biological and genetic-based technologies are of upmost health priorities around the world. Federal and private entities are spending billions...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Farnum, Alexander, Pelled, Galit
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7040096/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32132890
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00036
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author Farnum, Alexander
Pelled, Galit
author_facet Farnum, Alexander
Pelled, Galit
author_sort Farnum, Alexander
collection PubMed
description Developments of new strategies to restore vision and improving on current strategies by harnessing new advancements in material and electrical sciences, and biological and genetic-based technologies are of upmost health priorities around the world. Federal and private entities are spending billions of dollars on visual prosthetics technologies. This review describes the most current and state-of-the-art bioengineering technologies to restore vision. This includes a thorough description of traditional electrode-based visual prosthetics that have improved substantially since early prototypes. Recent advances in molecular and synthetic biology have transformed vision-assisted technologies; For example, optogenetic technologies that introduce light-responsive proteins offer excellent resolution but cortical applications are restricted by fiber implantation and tissue damage. Other stimulation modalities, such as magnetic fields, have been explored to achieve non-invasive neuromodulation. Miniature magnetic coils are currently being developed to activate select groups of neurons. Magnetically-responsive nanoparticles or exogenous proteins can significantly enhance the coupling between external electromagnetic devices and any neurons affiliated with these modifications. The need to minimize cytotoxic effects for nanoparticle-based therapies will likely restrict the number of usable materials. Nevertheless, advances in identifying and utilizing proteins that respond to magnetic fields may lead to non-invasive, cell-specific stimulation and may overcome many of the limitations that currently exist with other methods. Finally, sensory substitution systems also serve as viable visual prostheses by converting visual input to auditory and somatosensory stimuli. This review also discusses major challenges in the field and offers bioengineering strategies to overcome those.
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spelling pubmed-70400962020-03-04 New Vision for Visual Prostheses Farnum, Alexander Pelled, Galit Front Neurosci Neuroscience Developments of new strategies to restore vision and improving on current strategies by harnessing new advancements in material and electrical sciences, and biological and genetic-based technologies are of upmost health priorities around the world. Federal and private entities are spending billions of dollars on visual prosthetics technologies. This review describes the most current and state-of-the-art bioengineering technologies to restore vision. This includes a thorough description of traditional electrode-based visual prosthetics that have improved substantially since early prototypes. Recent advances in molecular and synthetic biology have transformed vision-assisted technologies; For example, optogenetic technologies that introduce light-responsive proteins offer excellent resolution but cortical applications are restricted by fiber implantation and tissue damage. Other stimulation modalities, such as magnetic fields, have been explored to achieve non-invasive neuromodulation. Miniature magnetic coils are currently being developed to activate select groups of neurons. Magnetically-responsive nanoparticles or exogenous proteins can significantly enhance the coupling between external electromagnetic devices and any neurons affiliated with these modifications. The need to minimize cytotoxic effects for nanoparticle-based therapies will likely restrict the number of usable materials. Nevertheless, advances in identifying and utilizing proteins that respond to magnetic fields may lead to non-invasive, cell-specific stimulation and may overcome many of the limitations that currently exist with other methods. Finally, sensory substitution systems also serve as viable visual prostheses by converting visual input to auditory and somatosensory stimuli. This review also discusses major challenges in the field and offers bioengineering strategies to overcome those. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-02-18 /pmc/articles/PMC7040096/ /pubmed/32132890 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00036 Text en Copyright © 2020 Farnum and Pelled. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Farnum, Alexander
Pelled, Galit
New Vision for Visual Prostheses
title New Vision for Visual Prostheses
title_full New Vision for Visual Prostheses
title_fullStr New Vision for Visual Prostheses
title_full_unstemmed New Vision for Visual Prostheses
title_short New Vision for Visual Prostheses
title_sort new vision for visual prostheses
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7040096/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32132890
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00036
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