{"id":117802,"date":"2020-12-30T21:22:17","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T05:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/new-brain-implant-helps-monkeys-see-without-using-their-eyes"},"modified":"2020-12-30T21:22:17","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T05:22:17","slug":"new-brain-implant-helps-monkeys-see-without-using-their-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/new-brain-implant-helps-monkeys-see-without-using-their-eyes","title":{"rendered":"New Brain Implant Helps Monkeys See Without Using Their Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/new-brain-implant-helps-monkeys-see-without-using-their-eyes2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A pair of monkeys were able to \u201csee\u201d and recognize individual letter shapes generated by arrays of electrodes implanted in their brains \u2013 without using their eyes. Previously, sight-restoring implants were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intelligentliving.co\/brain-implant-restores-vision-blind-patients\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">placed in the retina<\/a>, but these new implants were placed in the visual cortex. They achieved the highest resolution yet for such technology.<\/p>\n<p>The research took place at the <a href=\"https:\/\/nin.nl\/restoration-of-vision\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN)<\/a>. The scientists wanted to develop a way to restore sight for people whose optic nerves were damaged and couldn\u2019t benefit from retina implants. The team, led by Pieter Roelfsema, <a href=\"https:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/370\/6521\/1186\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">created a brain implant made of needle-like electrodes 1.5 millimeters in length<\/a>. They placed it on the animals\u2019 visual cortex, partially restoring its sight.<\/p>\n<p>The visual cortex is like a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2261853-brain-stimulation-device-lets-monkeys-see-shapes-without-using-eyes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cinema screen in our skull,<\/a> with each area on its surface mapping to the visual field. Placing a patch of electrodes on the surface that activate like pixels will make a person \u201csee\u201d whatever points get activated. For example, if an L-shaped pattern of electrodes in contact with the visual cortex is activated, they will see a pixelated L.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A pair of monkeys were able to \u201csee\u201d and recognize individual letter shapes generated by arrays of electrodes implanted in their brains \u2013 without using their eyes. Previously, sight-restoring implants were placed in the retina, but these new implants were placed in the visual cortex. They achieved the highest resolution yet for such technology. The [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":542,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1965,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mapping","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/542"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}