Spanish scientists have implanted a blind patient that has enabled the patient to see directly by stimulating her brain’s visual cortex. The system uses an “artificial retina” that is fitted to a pair of glasses and detects light in front of its users, as per New Atlas. The light is then processed into electrical signals and sent to a series of micro-electrodes implanted in the user’s brain, enabling the wearer to “see” light picked by the glasses.
The team tested the system on a 57-year-old lady who has been completely blind for over 16 years. During the testing, she was able to identify shapes and silhouettes detected by the artificial retina – startling progress for seamless bionic eyes that was only seen in movies before.
Are brain implants safe?
“We consistently obtained high-quality recordings from visually deprived neurons and the stimulation parameters remained stable over time,” read a paper published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. The authors added that the wearer managed to “identify some letters” and even “recognize object boundaries.”
While some might be skeptical about the idea of implanting electrodes in their brains, the team behind the study discovered that the artificial retina system didn’t affect the area of the brain around the visual cortex, which hints the system is safe and unobtrusive when compared to other brain implants.
The system also required a relatively low level of electrical activity when compared to other neural implant arrays. The system was later removed from the patient’s brain after using it for six months.
Early testing has shown promise
It goes without saying that more research is required before the tech could be rolled out on a larger scale. However, early indicators show promise. Between neural implants and gene-editing tech, certain types of blindness might soon be dealt with – at least for those with access to high-end healthcare.
Recently, Synchron, a firm that develops implantable brain-computer interface (BCI) received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to run a clinical trial on human patients. The company said it will assess the device’s “safety and efficacy in patients with severe paralysis.”
