The case was observed during a study designed to evaluate the safety and feasibility of a cortical visual prosthesis. Although the goal of the trial was to generate artificial visual percepts through direct brain stimulation, one participant experienced a progressive recovery of natural vision after more than three years of total blindness. The findings have been published in Brain Communications.

“So far, our Biomedical Neuroengineering Laboratory has conducted four clinical trials involving volunteers with severe blindness,” explains Eduardo Fernández Jover, lead researcher of the study and director of UMH’s Institute of Bioengineering. “As in all these trials, the aim was to generate artificial visual perceptions, not to restore natural vision. The fact that one participant showed a measurable and sustained visual improvement suggests the influence of individual factors that remain to be determined.”