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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Blind people ‘read’ letters traced on their brains with electricity

A precise pattern of electrical pulses allows people who have lost their sight to identify individual letters.
A man touching a computer screen.

A blind study participant draws letters after receiving signals from six electrodes implanted in his brain. Credit: M. S. Beauchamp et al./Cell

Blind people could ‘see’ letters after a precise pattern of electrical pulses was delivered to a part of their brains involved in visual processing.

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Nature 581, 243 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01421-6

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