Visual Prostheses and the Retinal Implant Project :: Biology Essays Research Papers

visual Prostheses and the retinal institute ProjectVisual percepts are the final increase of a rich interplay of stimulus processing that occurs without the intervention of ones consciousness. While this is a fascinating issue to consider, e peculiarly as it pertains to the philosophical and practical definitions of ideas equivalent the self, the converse is equally touching to me. In this modern era of exploding technical ingenuity, the sum of which is a product of the conscious brain, increasingly more opportunities live on for the brain to design the input it receives. One method by which this occurs is evident in the treatment of visual pathologies. A development of particular interest to me is the use of visual prosthetic devices in the treatment of some forms of industrial tense blindness. Research in this area raises numerous conflicts within the realm of bioengineering, further promises, at least, to challenge the boundaries of current microtechnology and instigate f urther integration of the quickly expanding fields of electronics and medicine. In 1988, a multidisciplinary research team called the Retinal Implant Project, spanning the knowledge bases of Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and the Massachusetts establish of Technologys Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, was formed with the explicit terminus of creating an intraocular retinal prosthetic device to combat the effects of certain types of progressive blindness (4). The prostheses are intended to stimulate retinal ganglion stalls whose associated photoreceptor cells have move victim to degradation by macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa, two shortly incurable but widespread conditions (2). Their most recent work has been to lead short-term clinical trials in which blind volunteers receive a temporary intraocular prosthetic implant and undergo a series of tests to determine the reference of visual percepts experienced over a two- to three-hour period (2). The leaders of the Retinal Implant Project, while enthusiastic about their progress, do not send for the realization of a workable prosthetic within the next louver years (2). The goal of retinal prosthetic proposed by the collaborators is to bypass strike down photoreceptors by providing electrical stimulation directly to the underlying ganglion cells (2,3,4,5). The ganglion cell axons constitute the optic nerve, which travels from the eye and terminates in various regions of the brain, where the combined input is urbane along multiple routes and ultimately results in the experience of sight (4). Ganglion cell excitation will be accomplished by attaching a two-silicon-microchip musical arrangement onto the surface of the retina, which will be powered by a specially designed laser mounted on a pair of glasses worn by the patient (4,5).