Selective neuromodulation of retinal ganglion cells via a hybrid optic-nerve and retinal neuroprosthesis for visual restoration

A visual neuroprosthesis delivers electrical stimulation to the surviving neural cells of the visual pathway to produce prosthetic vision. While the retina is often chosen as the stimulation site, current retinal prostheses are hindered by the lack of functional selectivity that impairs the resolution. A possible strategy to improve the resolution is to combine the retinal stimulation and the stimulation of the optic nerve bundle, which contains myelinated fibres of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) axons that vary in diameter. In this study, we used a computational model of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) with myelinated axons to predict whether the frequency of electrical stimulation delivered to the optic nerve can be modulated to preferentially inhibit a subset of optic nerve fibres classified by diameter. The model combined a finite element model of bipolar penetrating electrodes delivering sinusoidal stimulation in the range of 25–10000 Hz to the optic nerve, and a double-cable model, to represent an optic nerve fibre. We found that the diameter of the axon fibre and ion kinetic properties of the RGC affect the neuron's frequency response, demonstrating the potential of an optic nerve stimulation to produce selective inhibition based on the axon fibre size. Clinical Relevance–This establishes the importance of considering the size of the nerve cell axons, as well as the functional type of the RGC, in stimulating the optic nerve. This can be exploited to facilitate functionally selective neuromodulation when used in conjunction with retinal stimulation.