Brain implant restores vision to a man blinded by an optic nerve injury

"At Christmas 2018, Miguel Terol suddenly lost sight in his right eye. Six weeks later, he felt something strange in his other eye. He went to the emergency room, and while waiting there, he felt his vision dimming. Frightened, he started shouting, I can't see, I can't see! At the hospital, he was diagnosed with non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), a sudden loss of vision caused by a lack of blood flow to the optic nerve."

"In June 2022, in the midst of the pandemic, they opened his head to place a tiny 4x4 millimeter implant with 100 microneedles in his visual cortex, in the back of his neck. They were trying to stimulate the cortex to reproduce visual perceptions. Although the trial was intended to validate the technology, he regained enough vision to perceive light, detect movement, identify objects, and even read large characters on a screen."

Miguel Terol lost sight in his right eye in December 2018 and later experienced sudden dimming in his remaining eye, prompting emergency care. Doctors diagnosed non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), a sudden optic nerve injury caused by insufficient blood flow. An experimental procedure implanted a 4x4 millimeter device with 100 microneedles into his visual cortex aiming to stimulate cortical activity and elicit visual perceptions. Following implantation in June 2022, Terol regained partial visual abilities including light perception, movement detection, object recognition, and reading of large characters, exceeding placebo-like expectations and informing further trials.

Read at english.elpais.com