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Artificial Vision 2017

The International Symposium on Visual Prosthetics

01.12. - 02.12.2017, Aachen

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The electrical stimulation efficiency of retinal ganglion cells in degenerated mouse retina depends on specific patterns of spontaneous activity

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  • Christine Haselier - Department of Ophthalmology, RWTH Aachen, University Aachen, Aachen, Germany
  • S. Biswas - Institute of Complex Systems, Cellular Biophysics, ICS-4, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
  • S. Rösch - Clinical Department of Small Animals, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
  • G. Thumann - Département des neurosciences cliniques, Service d’ophthalmologie, Hôpitaux universitaires de Genève, Genève, Switzerland
  • F. Müller - Institute of Complex Systems Cellular Biophysics ICS-4 Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
  • P. Walter - Department of Ophthalmology RWTH Aachen University Aachen, Aachen, Germany

Artificial Vision 2017. Aachen, 01.-02.12.2017. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2017. Doc17artvis08

doi: 10.3205/17artvis08, urn:nbn:de:0183-17artvis087

Published: November 30, 2017

© 2017 Haselier et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Objective: We examined whether electrical stimulation efficiency is affected by specific patterns of pathological spontaneous activity observed in mouse models of retinal degeneration.

Materials and Methods: Using a multielectrode array system, we applied biphasic current pulses to retinae of wild type mice, rd10 mice, and mice treated with MNU (N-Methyl-N-nitrosourea) while at the same time monitoring the presence or absence of defined patterns of abnormal activity like bursts and oscillations.

Results: Electrical stimulation efficiency was reduced in presence of bursts and oscillations. Using a prestimulus pulse sequence, it was possible to abolish the abnormal retinal activity. In a few cases, the stimulation efficiency was increased after the prestimulus pulse sequence, but in the majority of tested cells it remained unchanged.

Discussion: Our results show that the efficiency for electrical stimulation is compromised by pathological electrical activity. However, our findings also demonstrate the possibility to modify the pathological activity until it resembles wild type activity. This may improve the stimulation efficiency in future stimulation protocols of retinal prostheses.

Acknowledgment: This work was supported by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG): TH 603/15-1, MU 3036/3-1, MU 3036/2-1, WA 1472/6-1