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390 Lilach Bareket et al.

interface. As we await the arrival of genetic and stem cell therapies where
individual neural elements may become independent of their neighbors,
neuromodulation remains a most powerful tool that has yet to be harnessed
to its fullest potential. The development of new biomaterials is reducing the
integration gap between biology and technology thus providing better con-
nections between the electrodes and the excitable tissue. While most
research efforts are being directed toward reducing the size of the electrodes,
there is a key factor that impacts significantly the quality of the visual per-
cepts elicited by bionic technologies: the ability to encode neural activity
elicited by electrical stimulation as occurs in normal vision. The combina-
tion of more effective electrode-tissue interfaces with new neuromodulation
techniques will soon allow for a more selective activation of the neural tissue
with controlled timing of the elicited neural responses, taking vision pros-
theses further toward the goal of mimicking the lost sensory functionalities.

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