Talking to the brain in its own language: from simulations to cortical implants


While substantial progress has been made in the past 80 years of intense
research, the principles by which our brain encodes visual information, even at
the earliest stages of processing, remains poorly understood. Concurrently, the
emerging field of brain prosthetic implants for vision restoration is heavily
dependent on a precise understanding of visual coding in cortical networks.
In this presentation, I will first illustrate how large-scale, biologically
nuanced simulations of cortical networks can synthesize fragmented experimental
data, thereby enhancing our grasp of visual information encoding principles in
our brain. Subsequently, I will discuss how such simulations can be
instrumental
in devising stimulation protocols for cortical visual implants. Finally, I will
present a newly devised method, born out of insights from these simulations,
which estimates the visual coding beneath the implant along with its validation
on data collected from blind implanted volunteers.