title: Optimized single pulse stimulation strategy for retinal implants.
abstract: Retinal implants offer prospects of vision restoration for some blind patients by eliciting visual percepts of spots of light called 'phosphenes'. Recently, a mathematical model has been developed that predicts patients' perception of phosphene brightness for current-driven electrical stimulation of the retina. This model is explored for different stimulation parameters on a single electrode, including safety and hardware limitations, to produce phosphenes of specified brightness. We describe a procedure to derive stimulation parameters to account for such constraints, and describe methods to construct optimal stimuli in terms of producing maximal perceived brightness and efficient generation of phosphenes of a given brightness by employing minimal energy. In both cases, it is found that the resulting optimized stimulation waveforms consist of a long stimulation period, and interphase delays between initial and charge-balancing phases.
authors.affiliation: NeuroEngineering Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia. cosavage@unimelb.edu.au
authors.forename: C O
authors.initials: CO
authors.lastname: Savage
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Grayden
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Meffin
authors.forename: A N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Burkitt
mesh_terms: D001766:Blindness / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D010719:Phosphenes / Q000502:physiology*; D019736:Prostheses and Implants; D012160:Retina / Q000502:physiology*; D057488:Visual Prosthesis