# Ethical and Policy Aspects of Cortical Visual Prosthetics Research: An Empirical Neuroethics Study

> **NIH NIH F32** · HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL · 2024 · $66,860

## Abstract

Project Summary
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have emerged as a promising modality for restoring physiological functions
such as mobility, communication, and visual perception. The BRAIN Initiative is a key driver of BCIs, funding
development of prosthetics for movement disorders, communication devices, and cortical visual prosthetics
(CVPs). CVPs aim to restore some degree of sight or a functional analogue for people who are blind. Unlike
other methods of sight restoration, CVPs bypass damaged or dysfunctional ocular anatomy, aiming to provide
potentially life-altering benefits via a distinctive, brain-based approach. But while other brain implants, including
other BCIs, are widely studied and discussed by neuroethicists, CVPs have received little attention and there is
a lack of empirical data on stakeholder perspectives about CVPs. CVPs raise special considerations due to
conceptual questions about the role of blindness in identity, autonomy, quality of life, and other dimensions of
non-clinical risk and benefit. CVPs are a potential tool for empowering blind individuals, but the specialized nature
of the intervention raises issues of access, and it is also crucial that this research avoid unexpected group harms
to the blind community. Furthermore, the visual experience that CVP technology is likely to provide even in a
best-case scenario is quite different from typical vision. Thus, there is uncertainty about how to measure success
in CVP research. Responsible development of CVPs must take into consideration the perspectives of
researchers and participants on the issue of how to define restoration of function and determine degree of
improvement necessary to qualify as success. Aim 1 will determine how members of a CVP research team define
restoration of function and its ethical importance as a research goal by utilizing an embedded neuroethics
approach (ethnographic participant observation) with a lab conducting human subjects research on CVPs. Aim
2 will identify the values that guide and ought to guide current and future practice in the field from the perspective
of CVP researchers using in-depth qualitative interviews. Aim 3 will employ similar interviews to explore the
values that guide and ought to guide current and future practice in the field from the perspective of individuals
with experience as participants in CVP research. This project will help identify and address ethics and policy
dimensions of next-generation CVP systems, helping to maximize the individual and social benefits of the
research while minimizing its risks and providing values-based guidance for development of neurotechnologies
aiming to restore vision and other physiological functions.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10734764
- **Project number:** 5F32MH127776-04
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
- **Principal Investigator:** Peter David Zuk
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $66,860
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-11-01 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10734764

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10734764, Ethical and Policy Aspects of Cortical Visual Prosthetics Research: An Empirical Neuroethics Study (5F32MH127776-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10734764. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*