Sheila Nirenberg: A prosthetic eye to treat blindness

Prevoditelj: Senzos Osijek Recezent: Zlatko Smetisko

I study how the brain processes

Proučavam kako mozak obrađuje

information. That is, how it takes

informacije, tj. kako preuzima

information in from the outside world, and

informacije iz vanjskog svijeta i

converts it into patterns of electrical activity,

pretvara ih u obrasce električne aktivnosti

and then how it uses those patterns

te kako koristi te obrasce

to allow you to do things --

da bismo mogli obavljati određene radnje –

to see, hear, to reach for an object.

vidjeti, čuti, dosegnuti predmet.

So I'm really a basic scientist, not

Ja sam obični znanstvenik,

a clinician, but in the last year and a half

ne oftamolog, ali unatrag godinu i pol

I've started to switch over, to use what

istraživala sam kako iskoristiti

we've been learning about these patterns

znanje koje smo stekli o obrascima

of activity to develop prosthetic devices,

električne aktivnosti kako bismo razvili protetičke uređaje.

and what I wanted to do today is show you

Ono što danas želim učiniti jest pokazati vam

an example of this.

primjer toga.

It's really our first foray into this.

To je zaista naš prvi poduhvat u ovome.

It's the development of a prosthetic device

Razvitak protetičkog uređaja

for treating blindness.

za liječenje sljepoće.

So let me start in on that problem.

Dopustite mi da počnem.

There are 10 million people in the U.S.

U SAD – u, a u svijetu još mnogo više,

and many more worldwide who are blind

živi 10 milijuna ljudi koji su slijepi

or are facing blindness due to diseases

zbog bolesti mrežnice,

of the retina, diseases like

bolesti poput

macular degeneration, and there's little

makularne degeneracije

that can be done for them.

i gotovo da im se ne može pomoći.

There are some drug treatments, but

Postoje neki tretmani lijekovima,

they're only effective on a small fraction

ali oni su učinkoviti kod malog postotka oboljelih.

of the population. And so, for the vast

Stoga većini pacijenata

majority of patients, their best hope for

nadu u povratak vida pružaju

regaining sight is through prosthetic devices.

protetički uređaji.

The problem is that current prosthetics

Problem je što današnji protetički uređaji

don't work very well. They're still very

nisu baš učinkoviti. Još uvijek su jako ograničeni

limited in the vision that they can provide.

u vidu kojega mogu osigurati.

And so, you know, for example, with these

Na primjer, pomoću tih uređaja

devices, patients can see simple things

pacijenti mogu vidjeti tek jarko svjetlo

like bright lights and high contrast edges,

i visoko kontrastne rubove,

not very much more, so nothing close

ne mnogo; dakle,

to normal vision has been possible.

ništa blisko normalnom vidu nije moguće.

So what I'm going to tell you about today

Dakle, ono o čemu ću danas govoriti

is a device that we've been working on

tiče se uređaja na kojemu smo radili

that I think has the potential to make

i za kojeg mislim da isti ima mogućnost

a difference, to be much more effective,

biti drukčijim, biti znatno učinkovitiji.

and what I wanted to do is show you

Ono što želim učiniti jest pokazati vam

how it works. Okay, so let me back up a

kako on funkcionira. Kako biste mogli uočiti problem

little bit and show you how a normal retina

koji nastojim riješiti,

works first so you can see the problem

prvo mi dopustite da se nakratko vratim

that we were trying to solve.

i pokažem vam kako normalna mrežnica funkcionira.

Here you have a retina.

Ovdje vidite mrežnicu.

So you have an image, a retina, and a brain.

Vidite sliku, mrežnica, mozak.

So when you look at something, like this image

Dakle, kada gledate u nešto poput slike

of this baby's face, it goes into your eye

lica ovog djeteta, slika putuje prema oku

and it lands on your retina, on the front-end

te pada na mrežnicu, na završne stanice,

cells here, the photoreceptors.

ovdje, na fotoreceptore.

Then what happens is the retinal circuitry,

Zatim se stvara električni impuls,

the middle part, goes to work on it,

središnji dio ga obrađuje,

and what it does is it performs operations

on provodi operacije nad njim,

on it, it extracts information from it, and it

izvlači informacije iz njega

converts that information into a code.

te ih prevodi u kod.

And the code is in the form of these patterns

Kod je u obliku obrazaca

of electrical pulses that get sent

električne aktivnosti

up to the brain, and so the key thing is

koji se šalju u mozak. Ključna stvar jest

that the image ultimately gets converted

da se slika konačno prevodi u kod.

into a code. And when I say code,

Kada kažem kod,

I do literally mean code.

doslovce mislim na kod.

Like this pattern of pulses here actually means "baby's face,"

Ovaj obrazac impulsa zapravo znači “lice djeteta”

and so when the brain gets this pattern

i kada mozak primi ovaj obrazac impulsa,

of pulses, it knows that what was out there

on prepoznaje ono što vidi

was a baby's face, and if it

kao lice djeteta,

got a different pattern it would know

a da je zaprimio neki drugačiji obrazac, znao bi

that what was out there was, say, a dog,

da ono što vidi jest, naprimjer, pas;

or another pattern would be a house.

neki drugi obrazac predstavljao bi kuću.

Anyway, you get the idea.

U svakom slučaju, shvatili ste.

And, of course, in real life, it's all dynamic,

U stvarnom životu sve je dinamično,

meaning that it's changing all the time,

odnosno sve se neprestano mijenja,

so the patterns of pulses are changing

stoga se mijenjaju i obrasci impulsa

all the time because the world you're

jer se i svijet koji promatramo

looking at is changing all the time too.

neprestano mijenja.

So, you know, it's sort of a complicated

Stoga, znate, to je malo komplicirana stvar.

thing. You have these patterns of pulses

Imate obrasce električnih impusla

coming out of your eye every millisecond

koji svake milisekunde putuju iz vaših očiju

telling your brain what it is that you're seeing.

i govore mozgu što vi zapravo vidite.

So what happens when a person

No, što se dogodi kada osoba

gets a retinal degenerative disease like

oboli od degenerativnih bolesti mrežnice

macular degeneration? What happens is

poput makularne degeneracije?

is that, the front-end cells die,

Dogodi se sljedeće: završe stanice odumru,

the photoreceptors die, and over time,

fotoreceptori odumru, a s vremenom

all the cells and the circuits that are

sve stanice i s njima povezani živčani vodovi

connected to them, they die too.

također odumiru.

Until the only things that you have left

Naposljetku, jedina stvar koja vam preostaje

are these cells here, the output cells,

su ove stanice ovdje,

the ones that send the signals to the brain,

odvodne stanice - one koje šalju signale u mozak,

but because of all that degeneration

no zbog svih nastalih oštećenja,

they aren't sending any signals anymore.

one više ne šalju signale.

They aren't getting any input, so

Ne primaju nikakve informacije,

the person's brain no longer gets

stoga mozak takve osobe

any visual information --

više ne prima vizualne informacije,

that is, he or she is blind.

tj. on ili ona je slijep/a.

So, a solution to the problem, then,

Stoga, rješenje problema bila bi

would be to build a device that could mimic

izgradnja uređaja koji bi mogao oponašati

the actions of that front-end circuitry

djelatnost završnih stanica

and send signals to the retina's output cells,

i slati signale u odvodne stanice mrežnice

and they can go back to doing their

koje bi tada mogle obavljati svoju

normal job of sending signals to the brain.

normalnu funkciju slanja signala u mozak.

So this is what we've been working on,

To je ono na čemu smo radili

and this is what our prosthetic does.

i to naš protetski uređaj radi.

So it consists of two parts, what we call

Dakle on se sastoji od dva dijela koje mi zovemo

an encoder and a transducer.

koder i pretvornik.

And so the encoder does just

Koder radi upravo ono

what I was saying: it mimics the actions

o čemu sam govorila: on oponaša djelatnost

of the front-end circuitry -- so it takes images

frontalnih završnih stanica (fotoreceptora)—

in and converts them into the retina's code.

dakle on preuzima slike te ih pretvara u kod mrežnice.

And then the transducer then makes the

Zatim pretvarač potiče

output cells send the code on up

efektorske (odvodne) stanice na slanje koda

to the brain, and the result is

prema mozgu, a rezultat je

a retinal prosthetic that can produce

protetička mrežnica koja može proizvesti

normal retinal output.

normalne signale poput zdrave mrežnice.

So a completely blind retina,

Dakle, potpuno oštećena mrežnica

even one with no front-end circuitry at all,

čak i bez aktivnosti završnih stanica,

no photoreceptors,

bez fotoreceptora,

can now send out normal signals,

sada može slati normalne signale,

signals that the brain can understand.

signale koje mozak može razumijeti.

So no other device has been able

Dosada niti jedan uređaj

to do this.

nije mogao to obavljati.

Okay, so I just want to take

OK, samo želim reći

a sentence or two to say something about

rečenicu ili dvije o pretvorniku i o tome

the encoder and what it's doing, because

što on radi jer

it's really the key part and it's

to je zbilja ključni dio

sort of interesting and kind of cool.

i zapravo je zanimljiv i super.

I'm not sure "cool" is really the right word, but

Nisam sigurna da je “super” prava riječ,

you know what I mean.

ali znate na što mislim.

So what it's doing is, it's replacing

On zapravo zamjenjuje

the retinal circuitry, really the guts of

električnu aktivnost mrežnice

the retinal circuitry, with a set of equations,

sa sustavom jednadžbi

a set of equations that we can implement

koji možemo ugraditi u čip.

on a chip. So it's just math.

Dakle, to je matematika.

In other words, we're not literally replacing

Drugim riječima, mi ne nastojimo doslovno zamijeniti

the components of the retina.

komponente mrežnice.

It's not like we're making a little mini-device

Ne nastojimo napraviti mini-uređaje

for each of the different cell types.

koji bi zamijenili različite tipove stanica.

We've just abstracted what the

Mi smo samo preveli

retina's doing with a set of equations.

djelatnost mrežnice u sustav jednadžbi.

And so, in a way, the equations are serving

I, zapravo, te jednadžbe služe

as sort of a codebook. An image comes in,

kao knjiga kodova. Kada dolazi slika,

goes through the set of equations,

ona prolazi kroz sustav jednadžbi

and out comes streams of electrical pulses,

te izlazi kao niz električnih impulsa,

just like a normal retina would produce.

baš kao da ga je proizvela normalna mrežnica.

Now let me put my money

Dopustite mi da prijeđem na stvar

where my mouth is and show you that

i pokažem vam

we can actually produce normal output,

da zaista možemo proizvesti normalan izlazni signal

and what the implications of this are.

te koje su posljedice toga.

Here are three sets of

Ovdje vidite tri uzorka

firing patterns. The top one is from

aktivnosti otpuštanja. Gornji je

a normal animal, the middle one is from

od normalne životinje, srednji od

a blind animal that's been treated with

slijepe životinje

this encoder-transducer device, and the

s koder-pretvornikom,

bottom one is from a blind animal treated

a donji od slijepe životinje s

with a standard prosthetic.

normalnim protetičkim uređajem.

So the bottom one is the state-of-the-art

Donji je uzorak najmodernijeg

device that's out there right now, which is

dostupnog uređaja danas,

basically made up of light detectors,

koji je sačinjen od detektora svjetla,

but no encoder. So what we did was we

bez pretvornika.

presented movies of everyday things --

Mi smo zapravo pokazali filmove koji prikazuju svakodnevne stvari –

people, babies, park benches,

ljude, bebe, klupe u parku,

you know, regular things happening -- and

znate, svakodnevne stvari –

we recorded the responses from the retinas

i zabilježili smo aktivnost mrežnice

of these three groups of animals.

ovih triju grupa žvotinja.

Now just to orient you, each box is showing

Samo da vas usmjerim, svaka slika prikazuje

the firing patterns of several cells,

uzorak aktivnosti nekoliko stanica,

and just as in the previous slides,

i kao i u prijašnjem slajdu,

each row is a different cell,

svaki red predstavlja drugačiji tip stanica,

and I just made the pulses a little bit smaller

i ja sam samo malo smanjila

and thinner so I could show you

i stanjila impulse kako bih vam mogla prikazati

a long stretch of data.

izduženi uzorak podataka.

So as you can see, the firing patterns

Kao što možete vidjeti, uzorci aktivnosti

from the blind animal treated with

mrežnice slijepe životinje s

the encoder-transducer really do very

koder-pretvornikom zaista odgovaraju uzorku

closely match the normal firing patterns --

aktivnosti mrežnice normalne životinje –

and it's not perfect, but it's pretty good --

poklapanje nije savršeno, ali je prilično dobro.

and the blind animal treated with

Dok kod slijepe životinje sa

the standard prosthetic,

standardim protetičkim uređajem

the responses really don't.

poklapanja gotovo i nema.

And so with the standard method,

Dakle, koristeći standardnu metodu,

the cells do fire, they just don't fire

stanice pokazuju aktivnost,

in the normal firing patterns because

ali ne daju normalne uzorke aktivnosti

they don't have the right code.

jer nemaju odgovarajući kod.

How important is this?

Kolika je važnost toga?

What's the potential impact

Kakav je mogući utjecaj

on a patient's ability to see?

na vid pacijenata?

So I'm just going to show you one

Pokazat ću vam krucijalni pokus

bottom-line experiment that answers this,

koji odgovara na prethodna pitanja.

and of course I've got a lot of other data,

Naravno, imam još mnogo podataka

so if you're interested I'm happy

koje ću vam rado pokazati

to show more. So the experiment

ako ste zainteresirani. Dakle, pokus se zove

is called a reconstruction experiment.

“pokus rekonstrukcije.”

So what we did is we took a moment

Zapravo smo nakratko ostavili

in time from these recordings and asked,

ove snimke te se zapitali

what was the retina seeing at that moment?

što mrežnica trenutno vidi?

Can we reconstruct what the retina

Možemo li rekonstruirati ono što mrežnica

was seeing from the responses

vidi na osnovi

from the firing patterns?

uzoraka aktivnosti mrežnice.

So, when we did this for responses

Dakle, snimlili smo uzorke aktivnosti mrežnice

from the standard method and from

pomoću standardne metode

our encoder and transducer.

te koder-pretvornika uređaja.

So let me show you, and I'm going to

Dopustite mi da vam pokažem,

start with the standard method first.

i započet ću sa standardom metodom.

So you can see that it's pretty limited,

Dakle možete vidjeti da je prilično ograničena,

and because the firing patterns aren't

a kako obrasci aktivnosti nisu

in the right code, they're very limited in

pravilno kodirani, vrlo su ograničeni

what they can tell you about

u načinu na koji vam govore što vidite.

what's out there. So you can see that

Dakle vi vidite nešto,

there's something there, but it's not so clear

ali niste sigurni što vidite,

what that something is, and this just sort of

a to nas vodi natrag

circles back to what I was saying in the

onome o čemu sam govorila na početku,

beginning, that with the standard method,

da koristeći standardnu metodu

patients can see high-contrast edges, they

pacijenti mogu vidjeti visokokontrastne rubove ,

can see light, but it doesn't easily go

mogu vidjeti svjetlo,

further than that. So what was

ali ne više od toga.

the image? It was a baby's face.

No, što je prikazivala slika? To je bilo lice djeteta.

So what about with our approach,

Što se događa kod našeg pristupa

adding the code? And you can see

dodavanjem koda?

that it's much better. Not only can you

Možete vidjeti da je rezultat mnogo bolji.

tell that it's a baby's face, but you can

Ne samo da možete reći da vidite lice djeteta,

tell that it's this baby's face, which is a

nego da vidite lice točno ovog djeteta,

really challenging task.

što je zbilja veliki izazov.

So on the left is the encoder

Lijevo vidite djelovanje samo kodera,

alone, and on the right is from an actual

a desno učinak kodera i pretvornika

blind retina, so the encoder and the transducer.

kod slijepe mrežnice.

But the key one really is the encoder alone,

Ali ključan je zapravo koder

because we can team up the encoder with

jer ga možemo kombinirati

the different transducer.

s različitim pretvaračima.

This is just actually the first one that we tried.

Ovo je prikaz djelovanja prvog koji smo isprobali.

I just wanted to say something about the standard method.

Samo želim još nešto reći o standardnoj metodi.

When this first came out, it was just a really

Kada se prvi puta pojavila,

exciting thing, the idea that you

to je bila vrlo uzbudljiva stvar,

even make a blind retina respond at all.

ideja da slijepa mrežnica može reagirati uopće.

But there was this limiting factor,

Ali postajao je ograničavajući faktor,

the issue of the code, and how to make

problem koda te što učiniti

the cells respond better,

da stanice reagiraju bolje,

produce normal responses,

da produciraju normalne odgovore,

and so this was our contribution.

a ovo je bio naš dobrinos.

Now I just want to wrap up,

Da zaključim,

and as I was mentioning earlier

a kao što sam ranije spomenula

of course I have a lot of other data

imam još mnoštvo ostalih podataka

if you're interested, but I just wanted to give

koje vam mogu pokazati ukoliko ste zainteresirani.

this sort of basic idea

Željela sam vam prenjeti ideju o tome

of being able to communicate

da možemo komunicirati

with the brain in its language, and

s mozgom koristeći njegov jezik

the potential power of being able to do that.

te o mogućnostima na tom polju.

So it's different from the motor prosthetics

To se razlikuje od protetičkih uređaja

where you're communicating from the brain

gdje je komunikacija na relaciji mozak – uređaj.

to a device. Here we have to communicate

Ovdje se komunikacija

from the outside world

vrši između vanjskoga svijeta

into the brain and be understood,

i mozga

and be understood by the brain.

koji tu komunikaciju podržava.

And then the last thing I wanted

Posljednje što želim

to say, really, is to emphasize

jest naglasiti

that the idea generalizes.

da je ova ideja opća.

So the same strategy that we used

Dakle ista strategija koju smo mi koristili

to find the code for the retina we can also

u pronalasku koda mrežnice,

use to find the code for other areas,

može se iskorisititi u pronalasku kodova u drugim poljima,

for example, the auditory system and

naprimjer, u osjetu sluha

the motor system, so for treating deafness

ili lokomotornog sustava, dakle u tretiranju gluhoće

and for motor disorders.

i bolesti sustava organa za kretanje.

So just the same way that we were able to

Na isti način kojim smo prebrodili

jump over the damaged

oštećenja

circuitry in the retina to get to the retina's

električne aktivnosti mrežnice

output cells, we can jump over the

kako bismo dospjeli do efektorskih stanica mrežnice,

damaged circuitry in the cochlea

možemo prebroditi oštećenja električne aktivnosti pužnice,

to get the auditory nerve,

a kako bismo dospjeli do slušnog živca

or jump over damaged areas in the cortex,

odnosno kako bismo izbjegli oštećenja u kori mozga,

in the motor cortex, to bridge the gap

u motoričkom dijelu kore mozga,

produced by a stroke.

kako bismo preprodili oštećenja uzrokovana moždanom kapi.

I just want to end with a simple

Želim završiti jednostavnom porukom

message that understanding the code

da je razumijevanje koda,

is really, really important, and if we

zbilja, zbilja važno te ukoliko razumijemo kod,

can understand the code,

jezik mozga,

the language of the brain, things become

stvari koje su se nekada činile

possible that didn't seem obviously

nemogućima,

possible before. Thank you.

sada su moguće. Hvala vam.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)