Development of a Primary Visual Cortex Model to Investigate Cortical Visual Prosthesis Stimulation

Abstract

A new electrical stimulation focused computational model of the visual cortex had been created to aid in the development of cortical visual prosthesis. The model consists of 10,666 biophysical neurons representing 0.13mm3 of a layer 2/3 of the primary visual cortex and was calibrated to match the baseline activity of rat brain recordings. A novel model of electrical stimulation was developed to allow for selective activation of specific neuron types, and matched the single cell stimulation response generated by known stimulation models. The electrode was tuned to match recorded population level change in activity across distances and currents recorded in the rats brain. The model is now ready to explore electrical stimulation effects on the visual cortex for examination of neuron specific stimulation to assist in the development of cortical visual prosthesis.