Research team enables blind women to perceive light+

OSAKA, Dec. 5 Kyodo -
A group of researchers succeeded in enabling two patients who had lost their
sight to perceive light by installing electrodes to stimulate their retinas, a
senior researcher said Sunday.
It was the first time that the procedure, only applicable to those who become
blind due to a problem with their retina, had been performed in Japan.
From April through July, the team at the Osaka University Graduate School of
Medicine placed about seven square-millimeter platino-chips with 49 electrodes
in the sclera of the eyeballs of the two women, located laterally from the
retinas, who lost their sight more than a decade ago due to retinitis
pigmentosa, according to Professor Takashi Fujikado.
They also installed a 1-mm electrode in each eyeball.
The research group attached CCD cameras to their foreheads which conveyed
visual information to the chips in the women's eyes after being converted by an
extracorporeal device.
The converted information stimulated their retinas and was conveyed to their
brain, enabling them to follow light on computer screens with their fingers,
according to Fujikado.
''We want to help them read big characters within two years, and they might be
able to walk without canes in several years' time,'' Fujikado said.
The two women are a 72-year-old from Hyogo Prefecture and 67-year-old from
Chiba Prefecture.
They wore the chips for about one month, and the Chiba woman has been able to
perceive the light from a candle even after the chips were subsequently
removed, as the nerves in her retina have become reactivated, according to
Fujikado.
A method of delivering electric stimulus to the retinas has also been studied
in the United States, but the technique developed by the Osaka University team
is said to be safer as it is unlikely to cause damage to them because of the
positioning of the chips in the sclera.
==Kyodo
2010-12-05 18:57:40