Recent Advances in Optogenetic Retinal Prostheses

Optogenetics has emerged as a revolutionary technology that enables circuit-specific restoration of neuronal function with millisecond temporal resolution. Restoring vision is one of the most promising and forefront applications of optogenetics. This chapter discusses essential components, mechanisms, present challenges, and future prospects of optogenetic retinal prostheses. The theoretical framework and analysis of optogenetic excitation of retinal ganglion neurons are also presented, which are useful in developing a better understanding and guidance for future experiments. It shows that the newly discovered ChRmine opsin provides control at light powers that are two orders of magnitude smaller than that required with experimentally studied opsins that include ChR2, ReaChR, and ChrimsonR, while maintaining single-spike temporal resolution, in retinal ganglion neurons.