Visual BOLD Response in Late Blind Subjects with Argus II Retinal Prosthesis.

Retinal prosthesis technologies require that the visual system downstream of the retinal circuitry be capable of transmitting and elaborating visual signals. We studied the capability of plastic remodeling in late blind subjects implanted with the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis with psychophysics and f...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: E Castaldi, G M Cicchini, L Cinelli, L Biagi, S Rizzo, M C Morrone
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2016-10-01
Series:PLoS Biology
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002569&type=printable
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849467421119741952
author E Castaldi
G M Cicchini
L Cinelli
L Biagi
S Rizzo
M C Morrone
author_facet E Castaldi
G M Cicchini
L Cinelli
L Biagi
S Rizzo
M C Morrone
author_sort E Castaldi
collection DOAJ
description Retinal prosthesis technologies require that the visual system downstream of the retinal circuitry be capable of transmitting and elaborating visual signals. We studied the capability of plastic remodeling in late blind subjects implanted with the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis with psychophysics and functional MRI (fMRI). After surgery, six out of seven retinitis pigmentosa (RP) blind subjects were able to detect high-contrast stimuli using the prosthetic implant. However, direction discrimination to contrast modulated stimuli remained at chance level in all of them. No subject showed any improvement of contrast sensitivity in either eye when not using the Argus II. Before the implant, the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) activity in V1 and the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) was very weak or absent. Surprisingly, after prolonged use of Argus II, BOLD responses to visual input were enhanced. This is, to our knowledge, the first study tracking the neural changes of visual areas in patients after retinal implant, revealing a capacity to respond to restored visual input even after years of deprivation.
format Article
id doaj-art-1c2df663a443406993a9e1c74df52e56
institution Kabale University
issn 1544-9173
1545-7885
language English
publishDate 2016-10-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS Biology
spelling doaj-art-1c2df663a443406993a9e1c74df52e562025-08-20T03:26:14ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Biology1544-91731545-78852016-10-011410e100256910.1371/journal.pbio.1002569Visual BOLD Response in Late Blind Subjects with Argus II Retinal Prosthesis.E CastaldiG M CicchiniL CinelliL BiagiS RizzoM C MorroneRetinal prosthesis technologies require that the visual system downstream of the retinal circuitry be capable of transmitting and elaborating visual signals. We studied the capability of plastic remodeling in late blind subjects implanted with the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis with psychophysics and functional MRI (fMRI). After surgery, six out of seven retinitis pigmentosa (RP) blind subjects were able to detect high-contrast stimuli using the prosthetic implant. However, direction discrimination to contrast modulated stimuli remained at chance level in all of them. No subject showed any improvement of contrast sensitivity in either eye when not using the Argus II. Before the implant, the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) activity in V1 and the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) was very weak or absent. Surprisingly, after prolonged use of Argus II, BOLD responses to visual input were enhanced. This is, to our knowledge, the first study tracking the neural changes of visual areas in patients after retinal implant, revealing a capacity to respond to restored visual input even after years of deprivation.https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002569&type=printable
spellingShingle E Castaldi
G M Cicchini
L Cinelli
L Biagi
S Rizzo
M C Morrone
Visual BOLD Response in Late Blind Subjects with Argus II Retinal Prosthesis.
PLoS Biology
title Visual BOLD Response in Late Blind Subjects with Argus II Retinal Prosthesis.
title_full Visual BOLD Response in Late Blind Subjects with Argus II Retinal Prosthesis.
title_fullStr Visual BOLD Response in Late Blind Subjects with Argus II Retinal Prosthesis.
title_full_unstemmed Visual BOLD Response in Late Blind Subjects with Argus II Retinal Prosthesis.
title_short Visual BOLD Response in Late Blind Subjects with Argus II Retinal Prosthesis.
title_sort visual bold response in late blind subjects with argus ii retinal prosthesis
url https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002569&type=printable
work_keys_str_mv AT ecastaldi visualboldresponseinlateblindsubjectswithargusiiretinalprosthesis
AT gmcicchini visualboldresponseinlateblindsubjectswithargusiiretinalprosthesis
AT lcinelli visualboldresponseinlateblindsubjectswithargusiiretinalprosthesis
AT lbiagi visualboldresponseinlateblindsubjectswithargusiiretinalprosthesis
AT srizzo visualboldresponseinlateblindsubjectswithargusiiretinalprosthesis
AT mcmorrone visualboldresponseinlateblindsubjectswithargusiiretinalprosthesis