Brain implant-enabled vision: Creating images within the brain

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  Quantumrun Foresight
• August 17, 2022

Insight summary

Blindness is a widespread issue, and scientists are experimenting with brain implants to restore vision. These implants, inserted directly into the brain's visual cortex, could significantly improve the lives of those with visual impairments, allowing them to see basic shapes and possibly more in the future. This evolving technology not only enhances the prospects of independence for the visually impaired but also raises questions about its broader societal and environmental impacts.

Brain implant vision context

One of the most common impairments in the world is blindness, affecting over 410 million individuals globally to varying extents. Scientists are researching numerous treatments to assist individuals suffering from this condition, including direct implants in the brain’s visual cortex.

An example is a 58-year-old teacher, who had been blind for 16 years. She could finally see letters, identify objects’ edges, and play a Maggie Simpson video game after a neurosurgeon implanted 100 microneedles into her visual cortex to record and stimulate neurons. The test subject then wore eyeglasses with miniature video cameras and software that encoded the visual data. The information was then sent to the electrodes in her brain. She lived with the implant for six months and experienced no disruptions to her brain activity or other health complications. 

This study, conducted by a team of scientists from the University Miguel Hernández (Spain) and the Netherlands Institute of Neuroscience, represents a leap forward for scientists hoping to create an artificial visual brain that would help blind people to be more independent. Meanwhile, scientists in the UK developed a brain implant that uses long electrical current pulses to improve image sharpness for people with retinitis pigmentosa (RP). This hereditary disease, which affects 1 in 4,000 Britons, destroys light-detecting cells in the retina and eventually leads to blindness.

Disruptive impact

While promising, much testing is required before this developing treatment can be offered commercially. The Spanish and Dutch research teams are exploring how to make the images sent to the brain more complex and stimulate more electrodes at once so that people can see more than just basic shapes and movements. The goal is to enable individuals with visual impairments to perform daily tasks, including being able to identify people, doorways, or cars, leading to increased safety and mobility.

By bypassing the severed link between the brain and the eyes, scientists can focus on directly stimulating the brain to restore images, shapes, and colors. The transplant process itself, called minicraniotomy, is very straightforward and follows standard neurosurgical practices. It involves creating a 1.5-cm hole in the skull to insert a group of electrodes.

Researchers say that a group of about 700 electrodes are enough to provide a blind person with enough visual information to significantly improve mobility and independence. They aim to add more microarrays in future studies because the implant only requires small electric currents to stimulate the visual cortex. Another developing therapy is using the CRISPR gene-editing tool to modify and repair the DNA of patients with rare genetic eye diseases to enable the body to heal visual impairments naturally.

Implications of implantable vision restoration procedures

Wider implications of brain implants being applied to vision improvement and restoration may include: 

• Enhanced collaboration among medical universities, healthcare startups, and pharmaceutical companies focusing on brain transplant vision restoration therapies, leading to accelerated advancements in this field.
• A shift in neurosurgical training towards specializing in brain implant procedures for vision restoration, significantly altering medical education and practice.
• Intensified research into smart glasses as a non-invasive alternative to brain implants, fostering advancements in wearable technology for vision enhancement.
• The application of brain implant technology in individuals with normal vision, offering augmented visual capabilities like extreme focus, long-distance clarity, or infrared vision, and consequently transforming various professional fields that rely on enhanced visual acuity.
• Employment landscapes changing as individuals with restored vision enter or re-enter the workforce, leading to shifts in job availability and training requirements in various sectors.
• Potential environmental impacts from the increased production and disposal of high-tech vision enhancement devices, requiring more sustainable manufacturing and recycling processes.
• Shifts in consumer behavior and market demand as enhanced vision becomes a desirable trait, influencing industries ranging from entertainment to transportation.
• Changes in social dynamics and perceptions of disability, as brain implant technology blurs the line between therapeutic use and augmentation, leading to new societal norms and values around human enhancement.

Questions to consider

• How else do you think this technology might change the lives of the visually impaired?
• What other applications exist for this technology?