There are already eye implants that allow the blind to see simple patterns, but Spanish scientists went further and implanted an implant that directly stimulates the visual cortex of the brain.
The woman was able to see for the first time in 16 years. Photo: Asociación RUVID / Pixabay
Last year, the experimental system was successfully tested on primates, and now it’s human’s turn. Earlier we wrote that surgeons successfully transplanted a pig kidney to a human for the first time.
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A team from the Spanish University of Miguel Hernandez tested the device on a 57-year-old woman who had been completely blind for over 16 years.
The experimental system consists of an artificial retina mounted on ordinary glasses worn by the patient.
The device detects light from the field of view in front of the glasses and converts it into electrical signals, which are transmitted to a three-dimensional array of 96 microelectrodes implanted in the human brain.
The implant is only 4mm wide and each tiny electrode is 1.5mm long.
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They enter the brain to stimulate and control the electrical activity of neurons in the visual cortex, which is located in the larger cerebral cortex. This stimulation allows a person to perceive light patterns transmitted by the artificial retina.
After a period of training, during which she learned to interpret the images produced by the device, she was able to identify letters and silhouettes of certain objects.
Scientists will conduct further research and recruit blind volunteers for experiments, writes newatlas.com.
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