Image-generating ability is not limited to people with working eyesight. With this phenomenon in mind, neuroscientists at the Texas Medical Center are researching a way to use the brain's image-generating ability to help some of the estimated 39 million people worldwide who are blind. The eventual goal is to develop a "visual prosthetic" device that would bypass the eyes and stimulate the brain to generate mental images, said Dr. Michael Beauchamp, lead author of the study.
Picture this: A blind user dons a pair of eyeglasses containing a webcam that relays information to a computer chip implanted in his or her brain, activating the "mind's eye." However, before such a device can become a reality, scientists must first increase their understanding of how brain activity leads to visual perception. The occipital lobe in the brain is responsible for vision and mental images. The brain uses tiny electrical charges to relay information among nerve cells. By electrically stimulating the occipital lobe, the brain can be fooled into perceiving things that are not actually there.
In a new study at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School and Baylor College of Medicine, scientists directly stimulated the brain to create the illusion of a flash of light. A key finding was that electrical stimulation only resulted in the illusion of a flash when there was activity in another region of the brain, the temporoparietal junction. It would take about 27 flashes for a person to be able to see the outline of a letter. Though much progress remains to be made, with more findings like these, perhaps there will come a day when the blind can see the world — through a different, but no-less functional lens.
