Behavioural responses to a photovoltaic subretinal prosthesis implanted in non-human primates

• Published in: Nature biomedical engineering Vol. 4; no. 2; pp. 172 - 180
• Main Authors: Prévot, Paul-Henri, Gehere, Kevin, Arcizet, Fabrice, Akolkar, Himanshu, Khoei, Mina A., Blaize, Kévin, Oubari, Omar, Daye, Pierre, Lanoë, Marion, Valet, Manon, Dalouz, Sami, Langlois, Paul, Esposito, Elric, Forster, Valérie, Dubus, Elisabeth, Wattiez, Nicolas, Brazhnikova, Elena, Nouvel-Jaillard, Céline, LeMer, Yannick, Demilly, Joanna, Fovet, Claire-Maëlle, Hantraye, Philippe, Weissenburger, Morgane, Lorach, Henri, Bouillet, Elodie, Deterre, Martin, Hornig, Ralf, Buc, Guillaume, Sahel, José-Alain, Chenegros, Guillaume, Pouget, Pierre, Benosman, Ryad, Picaud, Serge
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.02.2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/378; 631/378/1689; 631/378/1689/1626; 631/378/1689/364; 692/699/3161; Age; Age related diseases; Animals; Bioengineering; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology; Biomedicine; Blindness; Circuits; Disease Models, Animal; Eye diseases; Eye Movement Measurements; Eye movements; Human health and pathology; I.R. radiation; Implantation; Infrared radiation; Life Sciences; Light effects; Macaca fascicularis; Macular degeneration; Macular Degeneration - physiopathology; Macular Degeneration - rehabilitation; Male; Photic Stimulation; Primates; Prostheses; Prosthetics; Retina; Retinal degeneration; Retinal Ganglion Cells - physiology; Saccades; Sensory Organs; Vision, Ocular - physiology; Visual Perception; Visual Prosthesis
• ISSN: 2157-846X; 2157-846X
• DOI: 10.1038/s41551-019-0484-2

Retinal dystrophies and age-related macular degeneration related to photoreceptor degeneration can cause blindness. In blind patients, although the electrical activation of the residual retinal circuit can provide useful artificial visual perception, the resolutions of current retinal prostheses have been limited either by large electrodes or small numbers of pixels. Here we report the evaluation, in three awake non-human primates, of a previously reported near-infrared-light-sensitive photovoltaic subretinal prosthesis. We show that multipixel stimulation of the prosthesis within radiation safety limits enabled eye tracking in the animals, that they responded to stimulations directed at the implant with repeated saccades and that the implant-induced responses were present two years after device implantation. Our findings pave the way for the clinical evaluation of the prosthesis in patients affected by dry atrophic age-related macular degeneration. A near-infrared-light-sensitive photovoltaic subretinal prosthesis triggers behavioural responses in awake macaques, even two years after device implantation.