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@PHDTHESIS{RincnMontes:891143,
      author       = {Rincón Montes, Viviana},
      title        = {{D}evelopment, characterization, and application of
                      intraretinal implants},
      volume       = {67},
      school       = {RWTH Aachen University},
      type         = {Dissertation},
      address      = {Jülich},
      publisher    = {Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH Zentralbibliothek, Verlag},
      reportid     = {FZJ-2021-01392},
      isbn         = {978-3-95806-553-6},
      series       = {Schriften des Forschungszentrums Jülich Reihe Information
                      / Information},
      pages        = {XII, 173},
      year         = {2021},
      note         = {Dissertation, RWTH Aachen University, 2021},
      abstract     = {With the ultimate goal to restore vision in blind patients,
                      visual prostheses have been developed tointerface and
                      modulate the electrical activity of different neuronal
                      structures along the visualpathway, targeting mainly the
                      visual cortex, the optic nerve, and the retina. Thus,
                      prostheticdevices that stimulate electrically the retina
                      have been employed to treat blind patients with
                      retinaldegenerative diseases such as age-related macular
                      degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, whichcomprise the
                      third leading cause of blindness worldwide. In the last
                      decades, the development ofretinal implants with commercial
                      approval and those used in clinical trials has shown
                      meaningfulprogress towards the restoration of useful vision.
                      Nonetheless, the recent withdrawal of currentretinal
                      implants from the market exhorts the scientific community to
                      join and enhance efforts toimprove the technology and the
                      efficiency of such devices to achieve further steps in the
                      restorationof vision.Aiming at a new generation of retinal
                      implants, the BiMEA consortium has proposed thedevelopment
                      of a bidirectional microelectrode array (BiMEA) to enable a
                      bidirectionalcommunication with the retina. To this end,
                      penetrating neural probes were proposed to allowaccess to
                      the intraretinal space and to modulate and record
                      simultaneously the electrical activity ofthe retina. To
                      further develop the BiMEA strategy, this work exposes the
                      development and in vitrovalidation of BiMEA probes, setting
                      in turn the groundwork for the future development of
                      novelintraretinal implants.First, the BiMEA concept was
                      validated in healthy and degenerated ex-planted mouse
                      retinas usingsilicon-based devices, thereby demonstrating
                      the feasibility of a bidirectional communicationbetween the
                      retina and a prosthetic device. Thus, the stimulation of the
                      inner retina with safeelectrical stimuli while recording the
                      neuronal activity of the output neurons of the retina,
                      theganglion cells, was achieved. Going a step further,
                      intraretinal devices based on flexible materialswere
                      developed and optimized to better match the anatomy and the
                      mechanical properties of theretina while fulfilling the
                      insertion requirements of such devices. Hence, flexible
                      intraretinalprobes with miniaturized shanks 7 μm thick and
                      145 μm long were successfully inserted into thethin retina.
                      As a result, local field potentials and the spiking activity
                      of both, healthy anddegenerated retinas, were recorded.
                      Moreover, electrically evoked potentials were captured
                      afterapplying charge densities as low as 81.5
                      μC/cm2.Furthermore, a systematic study to validate the
                      acute performance of both silicon and flexibleBiMEAs was
                      conducted. This study revealed that flexible penetrating
                      probes based onparylene-C with a shank width as narrow as 50
                      μm diminished the acute insertion footprint ofintraretinal
                      probes, inducing lesions nearly 2.5 times the cross-section
                      of the probe. Moreover,electrical recordings had a maximum
                      signal-to-noise ratio of 12.37 and a success rate of
                      insertionof $93\%.$ Consequently, the development of
                      intraretinal devices open the door for closed loopfeedback
                      systems, offering the possibility to track and acknowledge
                      in situ the electrical activityof the retina and the success
                      of the stimulation while adjusting accordingly the stimuli.
                      Even more,aiming future in vivo applications, flexible BiMEA
                      probes showed the potential for thedevelopment of
                      intraretinal implants.},
      cin          = {IBI-3},
      cid          = {I:(DE-Juel1)IBI-3-20200312},
      pnm          = {553 - Physical Basis of Diseases (POF3-553)},
      pid          = {G:(DE-HGF)POF3-553},
      typ          = {PUB:(DE-HGF)3 / PUB:(DE-HGF)11},
      urn          = {urn:nbn:de:0001-2021080905},
      url          = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/891143},
}