Artificial Retina: A Future Cellular-Resolution Brain-Machine Interface

Abstract

Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) of the future will be used to treat diverse neurological disorders and augment human capabilities. However, to realize this futuristic promise will require a major leap forward in how electronic devices interact with the nervous system. Current BMIs provide coarse communication with the target neural circuitry, because they fail to respect its cellular and cell-type specificity. Instead, they indiscriminately activate or record many cells at the same time and provide only partial restoration of lost abilities. A future BMI that may pave the path forward is an artificial retina—a device that can restore vision to people blinded by retinal degeneration. Because the retina is relatively well understood and easily accessible, it is an ideal neural circuit in which to develop a BMI that can approach or exceed the performance of the biological circuitry. This chapter summarizes the basic neuroscience of vision, identifies the requirements for an effective retinal interface, and describes some of the necessary circuits and systems. Based on these ideas and the lessons from first-generation retinal prostheses, a novel neuroengineering approach is proposed: the first BMI that will interact with neural circuitry at cellular and cell-type resolution.