The development of sophisticated prostheses aiming to replace the disrupted retinal function and to feed restored visual signals to the brain, has provided new hope.
Stem-cell Therapy Treats 58-year Old American's Blindness
Stem-cell therapy, that uses stem cells to treat or prevent a disease or condition, is indeed a one to uproot different long-drawn diseases.
Stem-cell therapy, that uses stem cells to treat or prevent a disease or condition, is indeed a one to uproot different long-drawn diseases.
‘After the implantation of a prosthetic device the brain undergoes plastic changes to re-learn how to make use of the new artificial and probably aberrant visual signals.’
A new study published in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Elisa Castaldi and Maria Concetta Morrone from the University of Pisa, Italy, and colleagues investigates the brain's capability to process visual information after many years of total blindness, by studying patients affected by Retinitis Pigmentosa, a hereditary illness of the retina that gradually leads to complete blindness. The perceptual and brain responses of a group of patients were assessed before and after the implantation of a prosthetic implant that senses visual signals and transmits them to the brain by stimulating axons of retinal ganglion cells. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers found that patients learned to recognize unusual visual stimuli, such as flashes of light, and that this ability correlated with increased brain activity.
However, this change in brain activity, observed at both the thalamic and cortical level, took extensive training over a long period of time to become established: the more the patient practiced, the more their brain responded to visual stimuli, and the better they perceived the visual stimuli using the implant. In other words, the brain needs to learn to see again.
Some People Are Blind to Moving Objects Due to a Deficit in the Brain
As many as half of people are blind to motion in some part of their field of vision, but the deficit doesn’t have anything to do with the eyes.
As many as half of people are blind to motion in some part of their field of vision, but the deficit doesn’t have anything to do with the eyes.
Source-Eurekalert
NIH to Award $12.4 Million as Part of Audacious Effort to Reverse Blindness
Most irreversible blindness results from the loss of neurons in the retina, which is the light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye.
Most irreversible blindness results from the loss of neurons in the retina, which is the light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye.
Blinding Disease in Canines and Humans Share Pathology
The same gene NPHP5 was involved in ciliopathy, a rare condition that causes a severe kidney disease and the blinding disease Leber congenital amaurosis.
The same gene NPHP5 was involved in ciliopathy, a rare condition that causes a severe kidney disease and the blinding disease Leber congenital amaurosis.
