Neural coding boosts vision

Researchers have developed an artificial retina that has the capacity to reproduce normal vision in mice by incorporating the eye's neural code that converts pictures into signals the brain can understand.

Efforts to improve retinal prosthetic devices have focused on increasing the number of cells that are reactivated in the damaged retina. The authors, presenting at Neuroscience 2010 in San Diego, said stimulating cells with the right code was also critical. Two prosthetic systems were built, one with the code and one without, with the former device reconstructing more detail. Dr Sheila Nirenberg of Weill Cornell Medical College said: 'Incorporating the code jumped the system's performance up to normal levels - that is, there was enough information to reconstruct faces, newsprint and landscapes.'