Título provisional de la tesis

Development of a cortical neuroprosthesis for the blind

Resumen

The major topic for the project is the development of a cortical visual neuroprosthesis for the blind. The first objective is to design a neurorehabilitation program composed of repetitive experiments for implanted patients. The goal is to build a full battery of tests that will allow us to assess the efficiency of visual prosthesis in Activities of Daily Living as well as will teach patients using the implant outside the lab: in a real environment.

Due to my medical physics background, I would like to focus on brain imaging methods and techniques. I would like to conduct fMRI research on neuroplasticity changes and define the multimodal plasticity changes that occur after the loss of sight and vision recovery, to see how the brain adapts to those changes. On that basis try to develop the way of treatments and visual rehabilitation after implantation of the cortical visual neuroprosthesis and improve the success of visual restoration.

It is also important to develop new strategies to provide functionally meaningful information to a cortical visual neuroprosthesis that can be specifically tailored to every patient’s individual needs. I would like to include the eye-tracking study which differs in artificial sight (visual scanning is done by head movements alone) and in sighted people (visual scanning is done using head and eye movements). The study and integration of eye trackers in prosthetic vision can enhance the perception of artificial vision.

Director/a: Eduardo Fernandez Jover