视网膜电刺激虚拟通道产生机理及其与视觉神经系统相互作用机制研究

项目名称： 视网膜电刺激虚拟通道产生机理及其与视觉神经系统相互作用机制研究

项目编号： No.61472247

项目类型： 面上项目

立项/批准年度： 2015

项目学科： 计算机科学学科

项目作者： 柴新禹

作者单位： 上海交通大学

项目金额： 83万元

中文摘要： 视力丧失已成为影响人类生活质量最为严重的一种残疾。通过植入式神经微电极对盲人视觉系统中功能尚存的部分进行电刺激，从而实现视觉功能的修复已经成为神经科学与工程领域新的研究热点。视觉功能修复在取得重大进展的同时，也存在着输入信息需求大而刺激电极数量有限的瓶颈问题。本课题创新地提出在视网膜假体中通过调控相邻刺激电极电场的相互作用从而产生虚拟刺激通道的新思路。拟采用视网膜电刺激计算仿真模型、多通道微电极阵列，开展在体神经电生理和脑光学成像实验研究，探索虚拟通道产生的电场作用规律和神经信息处理机理，揭示虚拟通道与视觉神经系统的相互作用机制，并采用动物在体实验进行评估，从而为虚拟通道技术最终应用于人工视觉假体提供理论与实验依据。本课题不但为视觉功能修复提供重要的理论基础，而且能进一步探索大脑对电刺激视觉神经系统诱发视觉感知的信息处理机制，最终推动认知科学、神经科学及神经工程、信息科学领域的发展。

中文关键词： 脑机接口；人工视觉；视网膜假体；虚拟通道；选择性刺激

英文摘要： Vision loss has become one of the severest disabilities affecting the quality of human life. Electrically stimulating part of the visual pathway from retina to visual cortex by implantable microelectrode array could restore some functional vision to the blind. It has become a hot topic in the field of neuroscience and neural engineering for past twenty years. Although research on restoration of vision has already made significant progress, the issue that how to fulfill the daily needs of visual information with the low-resolution percepts elicited from limited number of stimulating electrodes is still to be investigated, which has become a bottleneck for the development of visual prosthesis. We proposed an innovative method that improve the number of stimulating microelectrodes of retinal prosthesis by 'virtual stimulating channels', which is generated by vigilantly manipulating the electric-field interaction between adjacent electrodes. We would utilize multiple aspects of techniques, including computational simulation of electrical stimulation on the retina, fabrication of multi-electrode arrays, in vitro and in vivo studies of electrophysiological recording and optical imaging of intrinsic signals, to explore the rule of the electric-field effect for generating the virtual channel and the mechanism of neural information processing. Our research would also investigate the interactive mechanism between the virtual channel and the visual system, and assess the functionality and validity of the virtual channel by series of animal experiments. These studies will be critical for successful application of the virtual channel technology in visual prosthesis. The research is not only to provide an important theoretical basis for restoring the visual function, but also to further explore how the visual system processes the electrical stimulation-induced information and finally forms phosphene, i.e. visual perception elicited by electrical stimulation. This would ultimately promote the development of in cognitive science, neuroscience, neural engineering and information science.

英文关键词： brain-computer interface;artificial vision;retinal prosthsisis;virtual channel;selective stimulation