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Computational Modeling of Retinal Neurons for Visual Prosthesis Research - Fundamental Approaches
Published on: June 21, 2022
Configuration-based processing of phosphene pattern recognition for simulated prosthetic vision
Hong Guo1, Ruogu Qin, Yihong Qiu
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Abstract:
Visual prosthesis can elicit phosphenes by stimulating the retina, optic nerve, or visual cortex along the visual pathway. Psychophysical studies have demonstrated that visual function can be partly recovered with phosphene-based prosthetic vision. This study investigated the cognitive process of prosthetic vision through a face recognition task. Both behavioral response and the face-specific N170 component of event-related potential were analyzed in the presence of face and non-face stimuli with natural and simulated prosthetic vision. Our results showed that: (i) the accuracy of phosphene face recognition was comparable with that of the normal one when phosphene grid increased to 25 x 21 or more; (ii) shorter response time was needed for phosphene face recognition; and (iii) the N170 component was delayed and enhanced under phosphene stimuli. It was suggested that recognition of phosphene patterns employ a configuration-based holistic processing mechanism with a distinct substage unspecific to faces.
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