Monash Vision Group’s Gennaris Cortical Implant for Vision Restoration

Lowery, Arthur J.; Rosenfeld, Jeffrey V.; Rosa, Marcello G. P.; Brunton, Emma; Rajan, Ramesh; Mann, Collette; Armstrong, Mark; Mohan, Anand; Josh, Horace; Kleeman, Lindsay; Li, Wai Ho; Pritchard, Jeanette

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-41876-6_17

Cited by 19 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Signals are broadcast by a wireless transmitter located at the back of the head ( Lowery et al, 2015 ). Safety tests on experimental animals have confirmed the production of phosphenes, and histological examination reveals minimal damage to the cortex after implantation and that long-term stimulation is possible without adverse events ( Lowery et al, 2017 ; Rosenfeld et al, 2020 ). The first human clinical trials are planned in the coming years.…”

Section: Brain Interfaces For Vision Recoverymentioning

confidence: 78%

Brain-Machine Interfaces to Assist the Blind

Ptito

Bleau

Djerourou

et al. 2021

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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The loss or absence of vision is probably one of the most incapacitating events that can befall a human being. The importance of vision for humans is also reflected in brain anatomy as approximately one third of the human brain is devoted to vision. It is therefore unsurprising that throughout history many attempts have been undertaken to develop devices aiming at substituting for a missing visual capacity. In this review, we present two concepts that have been prevalent over the last two decades. The first concept is sensory substitution, which refers to the use of another sensory modality to perform a task that is normally primarily sub-served by the lost sense. The second concept is cross-modal plasticity, which occurs when loss of input in one sensory modality leads to reorganization in brain representation of other sensory modalities. Both phenomena are training-dependent. We also briefly describe the history of blindness from ancient times to modernity, and then proceed to address the means that have been used to help blind individuals, with an emphasis on modern technologies, invasive (various type of surgical implants) and non-invasive devices. With the advent of brain imaging, it has become possible to peer into the neural substrates of sensory substitution and highlight the magnitude of the plastic processes that lead to a rewired brain. Finally, we will address the important question of the value and practicality of the available technologies and future directions.

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Section: Brain Interfaces For Vision Recoverymentioning

confidence: 78%

Brain-Machine Interfaces to Assist the Blind

Ptito

Bleau

Djerourou

et al. 2021

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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“…Most of the current projects follow the intracortical electrodes approach for the development of a visual cortical prosthesis. We can cite the Intracortical Visual Prosthesis Project (ICVP) at the Illinois University of Technology [79], the Cortical visual prosthesis for the blind CORTIVIS supported by the European Commission [36] or the Gennaris bionic vision system developed by Monash Vision Group supported by the Australian Research Council [55]. Intracortical electrodes present several advantages: they allow to reduce the necessary current to evoke a phosphene by several orders of magnitude [88,84] and it is possible to implant hundred of electrodes on a very small surface of the cortex (4 mm 2 with CORTIVIS for example).…”

Section: Visual Cortical Prosthesis and Intracortical Electrodesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual cortical prosthesis: an electrical perspective

Pio-Lopez

Poulkouras

Depannemaecker

2021

Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology

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The electrical stimulation of the visual cortices has the potential to restore vision to blind individuals. Until now, the results of visual cortical prosthetics has been limited as no prosthesis has restored a full working vision but the field has shown a renewed interest these last years thanks to wireless and technological advances. However, several scientific and technical challenges are still open in order to achieve the therapeutic benefit expected by these new devices. One of the main challenges is the electrical stimulation of the brain itself. In this review, we analyze the results in electrode-based visual cortical prosthetics from the electrical point of view. We first briefly describe what is known about the electrode-tissue interface and safety of electrical stimulation. Then we focus on the psychophysics of prosthetic vision and the state-of-the-art on the interplay between the electrical stimulation of the visual cortex and phosphene perception. Lastly, we discuss the challenges and perspectives of visual cortex electrical stimulation and electrode array design to develop the new generation implantable cortical visual prostheses.

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“…The Gennaris bionic vision system is an intracortical visual prosthesis developed by Monash Vision Group supported by the Australian Research Council. Similar to the ICVP project, Gennaris uses a number of autonomous implant tiles to cover the visual cortex [70]. Each ceramic tile holds 43 electrodes protruding from its base and contains a receiver coil and an ASIC.…”

Section: Gennarismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, a sheep model was used to demonstrate the surgical implantation of Gennaris tiles. Preliminary data indicated the minimal damage to the cortex and wireless transmission of power and data between the external coil and implanted tiles were achieved [70]. Similar to the other intracortical electrode arrays, Gennaris tiles will neither be placed on the medial aspect of the hemispheres nor within the calcarine sulcus to prevent the damage to the adjacent cortex and ensure proper wireless communications.…”

Section: Gennarismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Retinotopic maps of visual cortex reveal that a large portion of early visual areas (V1, V2, and V3) is located in the medial surface of occipital cortex [89]. So far, none of the microelectrode arrays have been or are planning to be implanted in the medial wall of the occipital lobe for two reasons: a) Risk of damage to the adjacent cortex and b) difficulty in wireless transmission when the receiver and transmitter coils are orthogonal [63,66,70]. Therefore, the occipito-dorso-lateral cortex is the preferred implantation site for microelectrode arrays and it might cover higher level visual areas (hMT+/ V5 and LOC) where the likelihood of phosphene induction is relatively lower [90].…”

Section: V1 Accessibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Brain Machine Interfaces for Vision Restoration: The Current State of Cortical Visual Prosthetics

Niketeghad

Pouratian

2019

Neurotherapeutics

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Loss of vision alters the day to day life of blind individuals and may impose a significant burden on their family and the economy. Cortical visual prosthetics have been shown to have the potential of restoring a useful degree of vision via stimulation of primary visual cortex. Due to current advances in electrode design and wireless power and data transmission, development of these prosthetics has gained momentum in the past few years and multiple sites around the world are currently developing and testing their designs. In this review, we briefly outline the visual prosthetic approaches and describe the history of cortical visual prosthetics. Next, we focus on the state of the art of cortical visual prosthesis by briefly explaining the design of current devices that are either under development or in the clinical testing phase. Lastly, we shed light on the challenges of each design and provide some potential solutions.

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Monash Vision Group’s Gennaris Cortical Implant for Vision Restoration

Cited by 19 publications

References 7 publications

Brain-Machine Interfaces to Assist the Blind

Brain-Machine Interfaces to Assist the Blind

Visual cortical prosthesis: an electrical perspective

Brain Machine Interfaces for Vision Restoration: The Current State of Cortical Visual Prosthetics

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