Retinal prosthesis that incorporates the organization of the nerve fibre layer

Recent efforts to restore partial vision in blind patients have made significant progress. Currently, prosthetic design concentrates on stimulating as many foveal retinal ganglion cells as possible but is hampered by stimulation of the nerve fibre layer. This results in a nonvisuotopic arrangement of phosphenes (stimulation percepts). This article suggests that by extending the stimulation area well beyond the fovea and stimulating the nerve fibre layer, axons from any remaining ganglion cells in more peripheral regions of the retina (low acuity) can be used to generate a visuotopic map. Stimulation of the fibre layer will generate a large number of stimulation percepts; however, it is unlikely that these will have sufficient topographic order to be immediately useful to the patient. Thus, it will be necessary to recreate an ordered visuotopic map by using appropriate computer algorithms and interactions between the patient and the clinician.