The Effect of Electrical Stimulation on the Response of Mouse Retinal Ganglion Cells

Retinal prostheses can restore the basic visual function of patients with retinal degeneration, which relies on effective electrical stimulation to evoke the physiological activities of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Current electrical stimulation strategies suffer from unstable effects and insufficient stimulation positions. Therefore, it is crucial to determine the optimal parameters for precise and safe electrical stimulation. Biphasic voltages (cathode-first) with a pulse width of 25 ms and different amplitudes were used to ex vivo stimulate RGCs of three wild-type (WT) mice using a commercial microelectrode array (MEA) recording system. Based on a facile and efficient spike sorting method, comprehensive statistics of RGCs response types were performed, and the influence of electrical stimulation on RGCs response status was analyzed. There were three types of RGCs response measured from the retinas of three WT mice, and the proportions were calculated to be 91.5%, 3.11% and 5.39%, respectively. This work can provide an in-depth understanding of the internal effects of electrical stimulation and RGCs response, with the potential as a useful guidance for optimizing parameters of electrical stimulation strategies in retinal prostheses.