Blindsight is an experimental medical device developed by

Neuralink Neuralink Corp. is an American transhumanist neurotechnology company that has developed, as of 2024, implantable brain–computer interfaces (BCIs), also known as brain implants. It was founded by Elon Musk and a team of eight scientists and ...

. It has received Breakthrough Device Designation from the US

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

(FDA).

Purpose

Blindsight is being developed to enable individuals with total

visual impairment Visual or vision impairment (VI or VIP) is the partial or total inability of visual perception. In the absence of treatment such as corrective eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment, visual impairment may cause the individual difficul ...

due to damage to the

optic nerve In neuroanatomy, the optic nerve, also known as the second cranial nerve, cranial nerve II, or simply CN II, is a paired cranial nerve that transmits visual system, visual information from the retina to the brain. In humans, the optic nerve i ...

but with intact

visual cortex The visual cortex of the brain is the area of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information. It is located in the occipital lobe. Sensory input originating from the eyes travels through the lateral geniculate nucleus in the thalam ...

, to see. This is made possible by bypassing the optic nerve and directly stimulating the visual cortex to create a

visual perception Visual perception is the ability to detect light and use it to form an image of the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment. Photodetection without image formation is classified as ''light sensing''. In most vertebrates, visual percept ...

References

Medical devices Blindness_equipment Neuralink {{medical-equipment-stub