Blind mice see faces with retinal decoder

摘要

A prosthetic retina capable of deciphering the code that allows the brain to make sense of visual stimuli has allowed blind mice to see clearly. One day an artificial retina like this could help millions of people who have lost their vision through retinal degeneration. In a healthy eye, light enters the retina and activates photoreceptors which process visual information and send it to ganglion cells. They in turn transmit messages to the brain as a pattern or code of electrical activity. People who have retinal degeneration lose the use of their photoreceptor cells. As a result, no visual information gets sent to the ganglion cells, or to the brain.