Possible Treatment For Blindness

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Possible Treatment For Blindness

There are different types of blindness, such as partial blindness, low visual problems, light perception cases, and total blindness. Among the worst ailments brought about by eye and visual cortex damage, total blindness is top on the list. Total blindness is an ailment in which a person has no functional vision whatsoever. This usually results in serious injuries to the eyes, the optic nerves, and a certain portion of the human brain called the functional visual cortex.

The damages that have left the eyes beyond repair can be treated with a surgical operation, which replaces the eyes with a new pair. Now, the effectiveness of this operation is dependent on the age of the person at the time the damage was inflicted to his eyes. You see, the functional visual cortex located on the human brain has not properly developed yet if the injury was acquired before the age of three, and in some cases, five. But for persons above this age requirement, treatment through such a surgical process is highly advised by medical professionals.

But for those persons who have inflicted injuries to the brain, specifically the actual visual cortex, there has not been a possible cure the medical field has come up with for quite a long time now. The brain is a very sensitive organ, and damage to most of its areas would result in improper functioning of motor senses and mental activity.

This case has also been true to those with injuries inflicted on the optic nerves. The optic nerves relay the electronic impulses sent by the eyes to the actual visual cortex located on the human brain. An improperly functioning set of optic nerves would just jumble the impulses into a jargon of unintelligible gibberish, or it may not even reach the functional visual cortex for that matter. With this, the actual visual cortex does not properly receive such electronic signals, let alone actually reach it, and this is one of the main reasons for total blindness.

But William H. Dobelle has developed a synthetic vision system through the efforts of the Dobelle Foundation. This private medical organization, founded by the man himself, has been continuously producing artificial systems for most internal organ damages and motor extremity losses. Yes, this synthetic vision system has been used to treat more than 40 blind persons to date, and has come up with enough results for it to be a possible treatment for total blindness in the near future.

Advanced digital technology has made this then dream to become a reality at this point in time. The synthetic vision system from the Dobelle Foundation is now commercially available for $96,000, which is a cheap price for regaining vision and mobility.

This system uses a brain implant in the actual visual cortex located on the human brain. The electronic chip implant is then connected to wires that run down the person's left temple. The wires, in turn, are connected to an external device known as the visual prosthesis. This electronic equipment, which is much like a highly advanced computer, is connected to an external digital camera by wires. The images that this digital camera captures are processed by its internal mechanism as digital signals. Since digital signals are composed of electronic impulses, these signals are then passed on to the visual prosthesis. The visual prosthesis then processes the signals in such a way for the actual visual cortex to understand it. The processed digital signals are then sent to the brain implant, and this electronic chip converts it to electronic impulses which the functional visual cortex was set to understand.

This process requires a person not to have acquired the ailment before the age of five. Plus, the functional visual cortex should not have been damaged during that time, as well as for its current condition. To understand it accurately, keep this in mind:

our nervous system is a bundle of nerves similar to that of wires;

these nerves rely on electronic impulses that are sent by body organs to properly do their tasks;

the brain is much like a computer's central processor, for it processes these impulses in such a way that it understands it;

when it comes to synthetic vision system, the electronic chip implant and the wires act as the optic nerve, the digital camera as the eyes, and the visual prosthesis as an external and primary portion of the functional visual cortex.

But you should also keep in mind that the visual prosthesis needs to be pre-programmed to work with the actual visual cortex on each person's brain. This is done by conducting tests and optimizations shortly after the electronic chip implant has been placed in the actual visual cortex through a surgical operation.

By: Hendrick Wilbur

Article Source: iSnare