MultiNav · Multisensory Navigation: Harnessing the Power of Multisensory Processing Optogenetic Stimulation to Aid The Blind
„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“
- Период
- 2015-05-01 → 2017-04-30
- Финансиране от ЕС
- 177 599 €
- Участници
- 1
- Схема
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.
Накратко на български
Мултисензорната навигация изследва как звукови сигнали или светлинна стимулация на мозъка помагат за ориентацията в тъмнина, тествано върху животни. Това е важно за разработването на бъдещи системи и протези, които да подпомогнат самостоятелното придвижване на сляпите хора.
Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.
Резултати накратко
Multisensory Navigation: Harnessing the Power of Multisensory Processing Optogenetic Stimulation to Aid The Blind
In Europe 30M people are visually impaired (VI), 2.5M of which are entirely blind. Despite many efforts on the societal level, VIs are still ‘left in the dark’, when it comes to independent navigation. Neuroscience has the long-term potential to provide brain-prostheses, which circumvent damaged parts of the visual system. In the present action, we investigated how spatial information can assist VIs during navigation by non-invasive and invasive information delivery. We made use of sensory substitution and optogenetic stimulation to investigate these questions in an animal model of navigation in the dark. Hence, our research contributed to develop future navigation systems for the blind, either non-invasively and invasively. Concretely the objectives of the action were to (1) develop an experimental system for rapid position-to-audition/optical signal feedback, (2) test the effectiveness of auditory feedback of target distance in an animal experiment, and then (3) substitute an optical signal for the acoustic signal in the auditory part of the brain. The last objective has the longterm goal of developing a future invasive prosthesis for the visually impaired. The first two objectives were achieved, whereas the third has been started and is still ongoing. We are in contact with both user groups and applied research institutions to support the development of assistive devices.
Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз
Цел на проекта
In Europe 30M people are visually impaired (VI), 2.5M of which are entirely blind. Despite many efforts on the societal level, VIs are still ‘left in the dark’, when it comes to independent navigation. Neuroscience has the long-term potential to provide brain-prostheses, which circumvent damaged parts of the visual system. In the present project, we will investigate how spatial information can assist VIs during navigation by non-invasive and invasive information delivery.We will make use of multisensory integration and optogenetic stimulation to investigate these questions in an animal model of navigation in the dark. Mice use their sensory hairs (‘whiskers’) analogous to how VIs use their cane for exploring their local surroundings. During this tactile navigation VIs also utilize the sound generated by their cane to provide both spatial and material information about their surroundings, evidence for a multisensory strategy.Specifically we will first investigate the effect of multisensory information on the neural representation of tactile information during natural exploratory behaviour. For this purpose we will provide sounds rapidly (<1ms) in sync with each surface contact of the whisker. These sounds are modulated by the animal’s distance to the object or will provide contextually relevant spatial information (e.g. distant targets). We predict that even soft auditory information will boost the usefulness of tactile information (‘inverse effectiveness’) and allow faster behavioural judgments in a spatial task. Next, we will provide spatial information directly to the tactile cortex using optogenetic stimulation, emulating the functioning of future, spatial brain prostheses. We predict that animals will learn to integrate this additional information to optimize their navigation success.In summary, our research will contribute to providing navigation information to VIs non-invasively and invasively, and thus further the ongoing efforts of inclusion in Europe.
Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).
Участници
- STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITEIT · NijmegenКоординаторНидерландия
Връзки
Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз