Time-varying pulse trains limit retinal desensitization caused by continuous electrical stimulation

Author

Davuluri, Navya S. ; Weiland, James D.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Biomed. Eng., Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

26-30 Aug. 2014

Firstpage

414

Lastpage

417

Abstract

An epiretinal prosthesis aims to restore functional vision in patients suffering from retinal degeneration caused by diseases such as Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). These diseases result in the loss of photoreceptors but bipolar, amacrine and ganglion cells survive at high rates and can be electrically activate to produce the sensation of light. Continuous application of biphasic stimulus pulses results in desensitization of the retina. In humans, this manifests as decreased brightness and increased stimulus thresholds. This study presents an in vivo model of retinal desensitization caused by continuous electrical stimulation and describes a novel stimulation pattern that limit desensitization.

Keywords

bioelectric phenomena; cellular biophysics; diseases; eye; patient treatment; physiological models; prosthetics; vision defects; AMD; Age-Related Macular Degeneration; RP; Retinitis Pigmentosa; amacrine cells; biphasic stimulus pulses; bipolar cells; brightness; continuous electrical stimulation; diseases; epiretinal prosthesis; functional vision restoration; ganglion cells; in vivo model; light sensation; photoreceptor loss; retina desensitization; retinal degeneration; retinal desensitization; stimulation pattern; stimulus threshold; time-varying pulse trains; Animals; Electrical stimulation; Electrodes; Probes; Prosthetics; Retina; Standards;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2014 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE

Conference_Location

Chicago, IL

ISSN

1557-170X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EMBC.2014.6943616

Filename

6943616