OPTICAL NEUROCONTROL · Flexible optical control of neural circuits
6РП — Действия „Мария Кюри“
- Период
- 2005-08-31 → 2007-08-30
- Финансиране от ЕС
- 80 000 €
- Участници
- 1
- Схема
- IRG
Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.
Накратко на български
Оптичните системи за стимулиране на ретината с помощта на светлина се тестват върху тъкани от плъхове. Това може да помогне за възстановяване на зрението при хора с дегенеративни заболявания, при които фоторецепторите са увредени, но зрителният нерв е здрав.
Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.
Резултати накратко
Final Activity Report Summary - OPTICAL NEUROCONTROL (Flexible optical control of neural circuits)
Among the most common causes of blindness are degenerative diseases of the outer retina, like Retinitis Pigmentosa and Age-Related Macular Degeneration - major causes of blindness, with a global toll of 25-30 million people. Diseases of the outer retina damage the light-sensitive cells called photoreceptors, but not the inner retinal neurons and the optic nerve. A retinal neuroprosthetic device will bypass the dead photo-receptors and provide an artificial sense of vision by translating the visual scene directly into patterns of neuron activity, much as cochlear implants for the deaf already translate sounds into patterns of activity in auditory nerves. In February 2007, a first-generation electrode-array manufactured by Second Sight Corporation passed early tests in five blind individuals, and is currently moving towards testing in a larger patient population. Our approach to stimulating retina neurons is very different, and is based on using patterns of light rather than electrical currents to stimulate the neurons. There are actually now several different ways possible for activating nerve cells directly using light, and the research project focused on developing optical systems that can translate visual scenes into many-neuron activity patterns. One of the most promising methods is based on inserting a light-sensitive ion channel called ChannelRhodopsinII into the cells' membrane, and we have demonstrated for the first time how these retinas can be activated using patterns of blue light. Our project focused on proof-of-concept experiments, where we tested the operating principles of the devices using isolated rat retinas. In parallel, we have been developed a first engineering prototype of a neuroprosthetic system that will generate appropriate patterns of light for mimicking natural vision.
Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз
Цел на проекта
Information representation and processing in the nervous system relies on spatiotemporal activity patterns carried across large populations of neurons. Our ability to perturb or even control these activity patterns thus underlies both basic-science experim ental questions and our ability to restore lost function following neurological damage. This task is typically addressed using electrodes and electrode arrays but can also be approached using optical stimualtion of neurons, for example, by photolyzing cage d glutamate ('uncaging') . We will develop a system that allows flexible, selective optical stimulation of thousands of neurons. Our system uses a rapid UV image projection system to control the dynamic distribution of glutamate release and will be appli ed in a series of in vitro experiments in retinas and brain slice preparations where we will use electrode arrays to monitor the resultng population activity. Using tools from engineering, we will characterize the input-output relationships in our system a nd use them to provide methodical strategy for activating and blocking the activity of neurons in feed-forward and recurrent network architectures. We will also use our system to emulate in retinal ganglion cells the same activity patterns recorded during normal visual input, a basic step towards a retina neuroprosthetic interface based on direct optical stimulation.'
Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).
Участници
- TECHNION - ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · HAIFAКоординаторИзраел
Връзки
Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз