Brian Buzzard has 25 tiny chips in his brain. They were installed in February 2022 as part of a study testing a wireless device intended to provide rudimentary vision to blind people. Bussard is the first participant.
Buzzard, 56, lost vision in his left eye at the age of 17 after his retina detached. In 2016, the right eye followed, causing him to become completely blind. He remembers the exact moment it happened. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through,” he says. Eventually he learned to adapt.
In 2021, he heard about a trial of a visual prosthesis at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. The researchers warned that the device was experimental and he should not expect to regain the level of vision he previously had. Still, he was curious enough to sign up. Thanks to the chips in his brain, Buzzard now has very limited artificial vision – what he describes as “blips on a radar screen.” With the implant he can perceive people and objects represented in white and iridescent dots.
Bussard is one of a few blind people around the world who have risked brain surgery to get prosthetic vision. In Spain, researchers at Miguel Hernández University implanted a similar system in four people. The experiments are the culmination of decades of research.
There is also interest from industry. California-based Cortigent is developing the Orion, which has been implanted into six volunteers. Elon Musk’s Neuralink is also working on a brain implant for vision. In one (n X contribution In March, Musk said that Neuralink’s device, called Blindsight, “already works in monkeys.” He added: “Resolution will initially be low, like early Nintendo graphics, but may ultimately exceed normal human vision.”
This last prediction is unlikely given that vision is such a complex process. There are enormous technical barriers to improving the quality of what people can see with a brain implant. But gaining even rudimentary vision could give blind people more independence in their everyday lives.
“This is not about restoring biological vision,” says Philip Troyk, a professor of biomedical engineering at Illinois Tech who is leading the study in which Bussard is involved. “This is about exploring what artificial vision could be.”
When light hits the eye, it first passes through the cornea and lens, the outer and middle layers of the eye. When light reaches the back of the eye – the retina – so-called photoreceptors convert it into electrical signals. These electrical signals travel via the optic nerve to the brain, which interprets these signals as the images we see.
Without an intact retina or optic nerve, the eyes cannot communicate with the brain. This is the case for many people with total blindness. The types of devices Troyk and Neuralink are developing bypass the eye and optic nerve entirely and send information directly to the brain. For this reason, they have the potential to combat any cause of blindness, whether due to eye disease or trauma.
The specific brain region that processes information received from the eyes is called the visual cortex. Because it is located at the back of the head, it is easily accessible for an implant. To place the 25 chips into Buzzard’s brain, surgeons performed a routine craniotomy, removing part of his skull.