Cerebral (cortical) biostimulation.
Presently, stimulation of the surface of the brain in order to provide artificial vision or hearing for the blind and deaf is in its infant stages. Those observations which are accumulating now have as their aim the investigation of the feasibility of such prosthetic devices. Whether such devices will ever be of real therapeutic benefit remains uncertain and can only be determined by this type of very labor-intensive, expensive and interdisciplinary investigation. When one considers, on the other hand, that there are between one-quarter and one-half million individuals in the United States and Canada who are profoundly deaf and a similar number who are legally blind, the value of the pursuit of such investigation requires little defense.
D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D006801:Humans; D010719:Phosphenes / Q000502:physiology; D019736:Prostheses and Implants; D014785:Vision, Ocular; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology