Wireless Intracortical Visual Prosthesis (ICVP) without intracranial cabling: Feasibility study results after 3 years

Wireless Intracortical Visual Prosthesis (ICVP) without intracranial cabling: Feasibility study results after 3 years | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Biological Sciences - Article Wireless Intracortical Visual Prosthesis (ICVP) without intracranial cabling: Feasibility study results after 3 years Michael Barry, Roksana Sadeghi, Kelsey Stipp, Astrid Jiang, Patricia Grant, and 26 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8355958/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Electrical stimulation of cerebral cortex has shown promise in eliciting visual 1-10 and somatosensory 11-15 sensations in individuals with profound sensory deficits. So far, such devices implanted in humans have required intracranial cabling for electrodes, but tethering imposes forces on the electrodes that can damage tissue and the interface 16, 17 . Wireless intracortical microelectrode arrays have been proposed to both avoid these risks and simultaneously access large areas of cortex 18-20 . The longevity of these wireless arrays and their effectiveness in human sensory stimulation, however, is unknown, particularly in dorsolateral occipital cortex. Here we show that 23/25 such devices (366/400 electrodes) implanted into a blind human function reliably over three years after implantation and improve functional vision when controlled by a camera (feasibility study, ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04634383). Phosphenes from different arrays, concentrated near the center of vision, allowed the participant to distinguish horizontal/vertical gratings as fine as 2.4 cycles/degree. Counterintuitively, pausing camera-based stimulation during more than half of each second improved performance. Electrode properties have been largely stable throughout our first participant’s three years and our second participant’s one year with 32 arrays (512 electrodes). Our results demonstrate the feasibility of long-term wireless intracortical stimulation without intracranial cabling and approaches to improve human neuroprosthetic intracortical stimulation. Health sciences/Medical research/Translational research Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Visual system/Extrastriate cortex Physical sciences/Engineering/Biomedical engineering Health sciences/Diseases/Eye diseases/Vision disorders Full Text Additional Declarations Yes there is potential Competing Interest. P.R.T., G.A.D., H.C., and O.T. are employees of Sigenics, Inc. M.J.B. and B.B. are employees of MicroProbes for Life Science. Supplementary Files SIGuide.docx SIGuide SupplementaryVideo1.mov Supplementary Video 1 SupplementaryVideo2.mov Supplementary Video 2 Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8355958","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Biological Sciences - Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":581415038,"identity":"6ad2ec69-efba-4edf-b5cf-02e680644c6d","order_by":0,"name":"Michael 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So far, such devices implanted in humans have required intracranial cabling for electrodes, but tethering imposes forces on the electrodes that can damage tissue and the interface\u003csup\u003e16, 17\u003c/sup\u003e. Wireless intracortical microelectrode arrays have been proposed to both avoid these risks and simultaneously access large areas of cortex\u003csup\u003e18-20\u003c/sup\u003e. The longevity of these wireless arrays and their effectiveness in human sensory stimulation, however, is unknown, particularly in dorsolateral occipital cortex. Here we show that 23/25 such devices (366/400 electrodes) implanted into a blind human function reliably over three years after implantation and improve functional vision when controlled by a camera (feasibility study, ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04634383). Phosphenes from different arrays, concentrated near the center of vision, allowed the participant to distinguish horizontal/vertical gratings as fine as 2.4 cycles/degree. 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