Saliency-guided neural prosthesis for visual attention: design and simulation

Masatoshi Yoshida; Richard Veale

doi:10.1016/j.neures.2013.07.007

Saliency-guided neural prosthesis for visual attention: design and simulation

Neurosci Res. 2014 Jan:78:90-4. doi: 10.1016/j.neures.2013.07.007. Epub 2013 Aug 3.

Authors

Masatoshi Yoshida¹, Richard Veale²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Developmental Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, Japan; School of Life Science, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Hayama, Japan. Electronic address: myoshi@nips.ac.jp.
² Cognitive Science Program, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA.

PMID: 23916830
DOI: 10.1016/j.neures.2013.07.007

Abstract

Recently the authors showed that a computational model of visual saliency could account for changes in gaze behavior of monkeys with damage in the primary visual cortex. Here we propose a neural prosthesis to restore eye gaze behavior by electrically stimulating the superior colliculus to drive visual attention. The saliency computational model is used to calculate the stimulation parameters from a real-time camera stream. Our simulations demonstrate that electrodes implanted in the superior colliculus at 1.0mm spacing are, in principle, able to recover specifically those visual attention behaviors which are lost when the primary visual cortex is damaged.

Keywords: Computational neuroscience; Electrical microstimulation; Superior colliculus.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Attention / physiology*
Computer Simulation
Electric Stimulation Therapy / methods*
Eye Movements / physiology
Humans
Models, Neurological
Neural Prostheses*
Superior Colliculi / physiology
Vision Disorders / therapy*
Visual Perception / physiology*