Enhancing Sight with Robotic Retina and Managing Visual Distractions

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The development of a robotic retina aims to enhance the sight of both blind and sighted individuals, potentially enabling them to see twice as far and with hawk-like resolution. While it could be useful for extracting details from the visual world, there are concerns about managing visual distractions such as focusing on fine movements like a fluttering paper. The ability to control electronic devices to sense different aspects of the visual world may provide opportunities for users to customize their visual experiences. By understanding how the brain processes visual and auditory information separately, such as driving and having a hands-free phone call safely, it highlights the importance of not being visually distracted while driving, as it can have life-threatening consequences.

In this episode, my guest is Dr. E.J. Chichilnisky, Ph.D., a professor of neurosurgery and ophthalmology at Stanford University. He studies how we see and uses that information to build artificial eyes that restore vision to the blind.

We discuss how understanding the retina (the light-sensing brain tissue that lines the back of our eyes) is critical to knowing how our brain works more generally.

We discuss brain augmentation with biologically informed prostheses, robotics, and AI and what this means for medicine and humanity.

We also discuss E.J.’s unique journey into neuroscience and how changing fields multiple times, combined with some wandering, taught him how to guide his decision-making in all realms of life.

This episode ought to be of interest to anyone interested in learning how the brain works from a world-class neuroscientist, those interested in the future of brain therapeutics and people seeking inspiration and tools for navigating their own professional and life journey.

For show notes, including referenced articles and additional resources, please visit hubermanlab.com.