IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation

Treat visual field deficits with stimulation of multisensory neurons. From the ten-year collaboration between IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation, Scientific Institute for Neuropsychiatry of Childhood and Adolescence in Calambrone (Pisa) and Linari Engineering, the medical device AVDESK has been developed, capable of exploiting brain plasticity, allowing for the possibility of turning multisensory neurons into ones that only respond to visual stimuli. By exploiting this mechanism, the patient will be able to develop a very effective compensation mechanism, that is to move the eyes in the direction of the blind visual field and acquiring an “unconscious” vision.

“The experimental project involves patients, adults or children, with acquired brain lesions that determine a partial (quadrantopsia) or total campimetric deficit (hemianopsia) – explains Francesca Tinelli, responsible for the IRCCS Vision Laboratory – and are usually caused by diseases such as strokes, cerebral ischemia, trauma or other disorders affecting the occipital cortex of the brain and optical radiation. Patients lose sight of what is happening around them, especially in some directions”.