Simulation based computation model for epiretinal prosthesis

The degenerative retina diseases such as Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) are recently encountered because of visual loss. There is not any known cure for these diseases, but studies are in progress on restoration of visual perception. In studies carried out recently by virtue of innovations in the field of microtechnology, bioengineering, packaging, it is aimed to develop visual prosthesis systems for purposes of activation of visual perception. In this study, various factors affecting efficiency of the visual prosthesis systems are reviewed, and then electric field distribution on tissue is simulated under quasi-static limits by using the finite element analysis. In this context, a layered retina tissue, stimulation and return electrodes which are in contact with the retina tissue are modeled. It is seen that deeper nerve cell communities are stimulated as the potential difference applied between the electrodes increases. Given that the nerve cells need to be stimulated individually for a visual prosthesis system with high resolution, it is concluded that the stimulation electrodes in contact with the tissue need to be penetrated into the tissue.