The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology

The Korean Society of Pharmacology (대한약리학회)
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Multiple consecutive-biphasic pulse stimulation improves spatially localized firing of retinal ganglion cells in the degenerate retina

  • Jungryul Ahn (Department of Physiology, Chungbuk National University School of Medicine) ;
  • Yongseok Yoo (School of Computer Science and Engineering, Soongsil University) ;
  • Yong Sook Goo (Department of Physiology, Chungbuk National University School of Medicine)
  • 투고 : 2023.06.26
  • 심사 : 2023.08.22
  • 발행 : 2023.11.01
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초록

Retinal prostheses have shown some clinical success in restoring vision in patients with retinitis pigmentosa. However, the post-implantation visual acuity does not exceed that of legal blindness. The reason for the poor visual acuity might be that (1) degenerate retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are less responsive to electrical stimulation than normal RGCs, and (2) electrically-evoked RGC spikes show a more widespread not focal response. The single-biphasic pulse electrical stimulation, commonly used in artificial vision, has limitations in addressing these issues. In this study, we propose the benefit of multiple consecutive-biphasic pulse stimulation. We used C57BL/6J mice and C3H/HeJ (rd1) mice for the normal retina and retinal degeneration model. An 8 × 8 multi-electrode array was used to record electrically-evoked RGC spikes. We compared RGC responses when increasing the amplitude of a single biphasic pulse versus increasing the number of consecutive biphasic pulses at the same stimulus charge. Increasing the amplitude of a single biphasic pulse induced more RGC spike firing while the spatial resolution of RGC populations decreased. For multiple consecutive-biphasic pulse stimulation, RGC firing increased as the number of pulses increased, and the spatial resolution of RGC populations was well preserved even up to 5 pulses. Multiple consecutive-biphasic pulse stimulation using two or three pulses in degenerate retinas induced as much RGC spike firing as in normal retinas. These findings suggest that the newly proposed multiple consecutive-biphasic pulse stimulation can improve the visual acuity in prosthesis-implanted patients.

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과제정보

This research was supported in part by the Basic Science Research Program (NRF-2021R1A6A3A01086439 and NRF-2022R1A2C2004793) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIP) and the Ministry of Education.

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