Modeling Voltage-Sensitive Dye Responses in the Visual Cortex to Retinal Neuromorphic Microstimulation in Mouse Brain Slices

Abstract: Previous clinical studies have shown that electrical pulse trains delivered into the visual cortex can evoke artificial visual sensations in individuals with acquired blindness, demonstrating the feasibility of intracortical visual prostheses. Our previous physiological experiments in mouse brain slices revealed that a single microstimulation pulse can drive synchronized neuronal action potentials in the vicinity of stimulating microelectrode tip, enabling temporal control of cortical activity using retinal spike-timing-based pulse sequences. In this study, we developed a linear–nonlinear cascade model to predict cortical responses to such neuromorphic stimulation, and confirmed its ability to reproduce key features of the observed neural dynamics. Keywords: Visual Prosthesis, Intracortical Microstimulation, Neuromorphic Spike, Physiological Experiment, Model Prediction