Participant perspectives from a cortical vision implant study: Ethical and psychological implications

Abstract

A total of thirteen individuals were interviewed and asked to describe their experiences of participating in a cortical vision implant study conducted by William Dobelle between 2000 and 2005. The transcripts from the interviews were analyzed using MAXQDA software and themes that resulted from the interviews such as motivation to participate, sensory substitution expectations, decision-making process, experience of artificial vision and functional use of artificial vision is described in depth. Emotional experiences of participating in the study result in ethical and psychological implications for future research.