Minimizing iridium oxide electrodes for high visual acuity subretinal stimulation
Open accessAbstract
Vision loss from diseases of the outer retina, such as age-related macular degeneration, is among the leading causes of irreversible blindness in the world today. The goal of retinal prosthetics is to replace the photo-sensing function of photoreceptors lost in these diseases with optoelectronic hardware to electrically stimulate patterns of retinal activity corresponding to vision. To enable high-resolution retinal prosthetics, the scale of stimulating electrodes must be significantly decreased from current designs; however, this reduces the amount of stimulating current that can be delivered. The efficacy of subretinal stimulation at electrode sizes suitable for high visual acuity retinal prosthesis are not well understood, particularly within the safe charge injection limits of electrode materials. Here, we measure retinal ganglion cell (RGC) responses in a mouse model of blindness to evaluate the stimulation efficacy of 10, 20, and 30 μm diameter iridium oxide electrodes within the electrode charge injection limits, focusing on measures of charge threshold and dynamic range. Stimulation thresholds were lower for smaller electrodes, but larger electrodes could elicit a greater dynamic range of spikes and recruited more ganglion cells within charge injection limits. These findings suggest a practical lower limit for planar electrode size and indicate strategies for maximizing stimulation thresholds and dynamic range.
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Smaller electrodes have higher charge density stimulation threshold and lower dynamic range, as shown in explanted retinas.
“Smaller electrodes have higher charge density stimulation threshold and lower dynamic range, as shown in explanted ratinas [160,161].”
From Advances in visual prostheses: engineering and biological challenges (2022) · cites this paper as [160]
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- Authors
- Damle, S., Carleton, M., Kapogianis, T., Arya, S., Cavichini-Corderio, M., Freeman, W. R., Lo, Y.-H., & Oesch, N. W.
- Affiliations
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Corresponding author
- Oesch, Nicholas W.
- ORCID
- Oesch, Nicholas W.
- Venue
- eNeuro
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- Published
- 2021-11
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- ENEURO.0506-20.2021
- ISSN
- 2373-2822 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8704424
- OpenAlex
- W3212539261
- Cited by
- 11
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2022: 3
- FWCI
- 0.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- eNeuro (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- NIH (EY029259)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neural Engineering
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Retinal Development and Disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Photoreceptor and optogenetics research
- Keywords
- iridium oxide electrodes, subretinal stimulation, retinal prosthesis, retinal ganglion cells, stimulation threshold, dynamic range, electrode size, charge injection limit, age-related macular degeneration, visual acuity
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Electric Stimulation, Electrodes, Implanted, Iridium, Microelectrodes, Retina, Retinal Ganglion Cells, Visual Acuity, Mice, Visual Prosthesis
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