Ultrasound stimulation for non-invasive visual prostheses

Jaya Dilip Badadhe; Hyeonhee Roh; Byung Chul Lee; Jae Hun Kim; Maesoon Im

doi:10.3389/fncel.2022.971148

Ultrasound stimulation for non-invasive visual prostheses

Front Cell Neurosci. 2022 Aug 3:16:971148. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2022.971148. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jaya Dilip Badadhe^{1

2}, Hyeonhee Roh^{1

3}, Byung Chul Lee^{1

2

4}, Jae Hun Kim⁵, Maesoon Im^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, South Korea.
² Division of Bio-Medical Science & Technology, KIST School, University of Science and Technology (UST), Seoul, South Korea.
³ School of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.
⁴ KHU-KIST Department of Converging Science and Technology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
⁵ Sensor System Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, South Korea.

Abstract

Globally, it is estimated there are more than 2.2 billion visually impaired people. Visual diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and optic neuritis can cause irreversible profound vision loss. Many groups have investigated different approaches such as microelectronic prostheses, optogenetics, stem cell therapy, and gene therapy to restore vision. However, these methods have some limitations such as invasive implantation surgery and unknown long-term risk of genetic manipulation. In addition to the safety of ultrasound as a medical imaging modality, ultrasound stimulation can be a viable non-invasive alternative approach for the sight restoration because of its ability to non-invasively control neuronal activities. Indeed, recent studies have demonstrated ultrasound stimulation can successfully modulate retinal/brain neuronal activities without causing any damage to the nerve cells. Superior penetration depth and high spatial resolution of focused ultrasound can open a new avenue in neuromodulation researches. This review summarizes the latest research results about neural responses to ultrasound stimulation. Also, this work provides an overview of technical viewpoints in the future design of a miniaturized ultrasound transducer for a non-invasive acoustic visual prosthesis for non-surgical and painless restoration of vision.

Keywords: artificial vision; neuromodulation; ultrasound stimulation; vision restoration; visual prosthesis.

Publication types

Review