Biology subjects

Fine, I.

Publications and source records attributed to Fine, I..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2018

A model of ganglion axon pathways accounts for percepts elicited by retinal implants

Retinal prostheses, now implanted in over 250 patients worldwide, electrically stimulate surviving cells in order to evoke neuronal responses that are interpreted by the brain as visual percepts ( phosphenes). However, instead of seeing focal spots of light, current implant users perceive highly distorted phosphenes that vary in shape both across subjects and electrodes. We characterized these distortions by asking users of the Argus retinal prosthesis system (Second Sight Medical Products) to draw elicited percepts on a touchscreen. We found that phosphene shape could be accurately predicted by simulating the topographic organization of nerve fiber bundles in each subjects retina. Our model shows that activation of ganglion axons contributes to a rich repertoire of phosphene shapes, successfully replicating percepts ranging from blobs to oriented streaks and wedges depending on electrode location. This work provides a first step towards future devices that incorporate stimulation strategies tailored to each individual patients retinal neurophysiology.\n\nOne Sentence SummaryWe show that the perceptual experience of retinal implant users can be accurately predicted using a computational model that simulates the topographic organization of each individual patients retinal ganglion axon pathways.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Persistent Underrepresentation of Women’s Science in High Profile Journals

Yiqin Alicia Shen, Jason M. Webster, Yuichi Shoda, and Ione Fine Department of Psychology, University of Washington Past research has demonstrated an under-representation of female editors and reviewers in top scientific journals, but less is known about the representation of women authors within original research articles. We collected research article publication records from 15 high-profile multidisciplinary and neuroscience journals for 2005-2017 and analyzed the representation of women over time, as well as its relationship with journal impact factor. We find that women authors have been persistently underrepresented in high-profile journals. This under-representation has persisted over more than a decade, with glacial improvement over time. Even within our limited group of high profile journals, the percent of female first and last authors is negatively associated with journal impact factor. Since publishing in high-profile journals is a gateway to academic success, this underrepresentation of women may contribute to the lack of women at the top of the academic ladder.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2017

pulse2percept: A Python-based simulation framework for bionic vision

By 2020 roughly 200 million people worldwide will suffer from photoreceptor diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, and a variety of retinal sight restoration technologies are being developed to target these diseases. One technology, analogous to cochlear implants, uses a grid of electrodes to stimulate remaining retinal cells. Two brands of retinal prostheses are currently approved for implantation in patients with late stage photoreceptor disease. Clinical experience with these implants has made it apparent that the vision restored by these devices differs substantially from normal sight. To better understand the outcomes of this technology, we developed pulse2percept, an open-source Python implementation of a computational model that predicts the perceptual experience of retinal prosthesis patients across a wide range of implant configurations. A modular and extensible user interface exposes the different building blocks of the software, making it easy for users to simulate novel implants, stimuli, and retinal models. We hope that this library will contribute substantially to the field of medicine by providing a tool to accelerate the development of visual prostheses.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Learning to see again: Biological constraints on cortical plasticity and the implications for sight restoration technologies

1. ABSTRACTThe \"bionic eye\" - so long a dream of the future - is finally becoming a reality with retinal prostheses available to patients in both the US and Europe. However, clinical experience with these implants has made it apparent that the vision provided by these devices differs substantially from normal sight. Consequently, the ability to learn to make use of this abnormal retinal input plays a critical role in whether or not some functional vision is successfully regained. The goal of the present review is to summarize the vast basic science literature on developmental and adult cortical plasticity with an emphasis on how this literature might relate to the field of prosthetic vision. We begin with describing the distortion and information loss likely to be experienced by visual prosthesis users. We then define cortical plasticity and perceptual learning, and describe what is known, and what is unknown, about visual plasticity across the hierarchy of brain regions involved in visual processing, and across different stages of life. We close by discussing what is known about brain plasticity in sight restoration patients and discuss biological mechanisms that might eventually be harnessed to improve visual learning in these patients.

neuroscience↗