Neurolight Alpha: Interfacing Computational Neural Models for Stimulus Modulation in Cortical Visual Neuroprostheses

Visual neuroprostheses that provide electrical stimulation along several sites of the human visual system constitute a potential tool for vision restoring for the blind. In the context of a NIH approved human clinical trials project (CORTIVIS), we now face the challenge of developing not only computationally powerful, but also flexible tools that allow us to generate useful knowledge in an efficient way. In this work, we address the development and implementation of computational models of different types of visual neurons and design a tool -Neurolight alpha- that allows interfacing these models with a visual neural prosthesis in order to create more naturalistic electrical stimulation patterns. We implement the complete pipeline, from obtaining a video stream to developing and deploying predictive models of retinal ganglion cell's encoding of visual inputs into the control of a cortical microstimulation device which will send electrical train pulses through an Utah Array to the neural tissue.