Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Retinal Prosthetic Allows Blind Mice to See

by Caleb Johnson on November 17, 2010 at 05:00 PM

Retinal prosthetic allows blind mice to see baby's face.
Researchers at Cornell University have developed a new retinal prosthetic that allows blind mice to clearly see an image of a baby's face. According to Science News, Sheila Nirenberg and Chethan Pandarinath used the prosthetic to mimic the actions of the retina's photoreceptor cells, which serve as key links between the eye and the brain. In a healthy eye, these cells convert every image viewed into a complex code, which is then interpreted by other cells before being transmitted to the brain. Other prostheses, like the retinal implant that temporarily restored a blind man's vision, have recreated simplified versions of these codes, which make for blurry, pixelated images. The Cornell researchers, though, were able to recreate more natural codes by measuring cellular activity in the retina when they presented the image of a baby's face to the mice, eventually leading to more finely detailed images.

Next, the researchers will test the prosthetic on primates. If those tests are successful, Nirenberg and Pandarinath hope to eventually begin trials with humans. Doing so, however, would also likely require gene therapy, complicating and delaying the process even more.

Tags: eye, eyes, health, implant, implants, prosthetic, research, retina, science, study, top, Vision

Comments

2

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular