A visually impaired woman received a brain implant, which helped her see simple shapes such as lines or simple letters. The former science teacher received a prosthesis in her occipital cortex and became a co-author of the article published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. This success is great news for many people, and the scientists behind it offered all the details of the procedure. The woman had been blind for 16 years before the procedure.
How can the blind woman distinguish shapes?
This achievement was possible due to a successful collaboration between scientists from three different universities from Spain (University Miguel Hernández), the Netherlands ( The Netherlands Institute of Neuroscience), and the USA (University of Utah). The 58 years old women volunteered for the procedure, and several experiments took place in Spain. Scientists hoped to create a visual brain prosthesis and implanted a microelectrode with 100 microneedles into the volunteer’s brain. The woman uses eyeglasses that come with a video camera that can encode the visual data from the camera and then send it to the microelectrodes from the brain. The surrounding neurons produce phosphenes, known as white points of light, which in turn create images.
The surgery was a success, and it opened the door for more
The woman recovered successfully, and the scientist involved in the research helped her use her new prosthesis by creating a video game for her to practice. The implant had no negative impact on her other brain functions, and this success opens the door to many more in the future.
The purpose of the implant and the research is to offer visually impaired people more independence and mobility. In the future, those who opt for a brain implant could identify people, cars, and other obstacles such as doors.