Development of a cortical visual neuroprosthesis for the blind: Replacing the role of the retina

Cortical prostheses are a subgroup of visual neuroprosthesis capable of eliciting visual percepts in profoundly blind people through direct stimulation of the occipital cortex. This approach is the only treatment available for blindness caused by glaucoma, optic atrophy or by diseases of the central visual pathways such as brain injuries or stroke. If these higher visual centers could be stimulated with visual information in a format somewhat similar to the way they were stimulated before the onset of blindness, a blind individual could be able to use this stimulation to extract information about the physical world around him/her. Here we present an update of the strategies we are using to transmit visual information in a meaningful way to the brain.