Researchers have long attempted to unravel the cryptic code used by the neurons of the brain to represent our visual world. By studying the way the brain rapidly and precisely encodes natural visual events that occur on a slower timescale, a team of Harvard bioengineers and brain scientists from the State University of New York have moved one step closer towards solving this riddle.

When the idea appeared several years ago, it sounded persuasive: How about implanting electrodes at the defective retina of blind subjects and connecting them with a mini camera in order to re-establish vision.