Improving cortical visual prostheses: the influence of physiological structures and cortical rhythms on neural prosthesis efficacy

Prostheses designed to restore vision to the blind use electrical stimulation to create the sensation of light. This thesis examines how the position of electrical contacts in the brain, and the timing of electrical stimulation, affects brain activity following stimulation. It establishes how brain activity serves as a useful means of understanding the complex relationship between prosthesis function and the experience of artificial vision, and adds to the body of work describing how prosthesis design might better provide artificial vision.