Neuroscience
From tomorrow's New York Times:
The Beam of Light That Flips a Switch That Turns on the Brain
By INGFEI CHEN
Published: August 14, 2007
[snip]
One of the newest, fastest strategies co-opts a photosensitive protein called channelrhodopsin-2 from pond scum to allow precise laser control of the altered cells on a millisecond timescale. That speed mimics the natural electrical chatterings of the brain, said Dr. Karl Deisseroth, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford.
“We can start to sort of speak the language of the brain using optical excitation,” Dr. Deisseroth said. The brain’s functions “arise from the orchestrated participation of all the different cell types, like in a symphony,” he said.
Laser stimulation can serve as a musical conductor, manipulating the various kinds of neurons in the brain to reveal which important roles they play.
This light-switch technology promises to accelerate scientists’ efforts in mapping which clusters of the brain’s 100 billion neurons warble to each other when a person, for example, recalls a memory or learns a skill. That quest is one of the greatest challenges facing neuroscience.
The channelrhodopsin switch is “really going to blow the lid off the whole analysis of brain function,” said George Augustine, a neurobiologist at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
[ ... Read the full article ... ]
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Neuroscience
Light-Switch Technology: Channelrhodopsin-2
From tomorrow's New York Times:
The Beam of Light That Flips a Switch That Turns on the Brain
By INGFEI CHEN
Published: August 14, 2007
[snip]
One of the newest, fastest strategies co-opts a photosensitive protein called channelrhodopsin-2 from pond scum to allow precise laser control of the altered cells on a millisecond timescale. That speed mimics the natural electrical chatterings of the brain, said Dr. Karl Deisseroth, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford.
“We can start to sort of speak the language of the brain using optical excitation,” Dr. Deisseroth said. The brain’s functions “arise from the orchestrated participation of all the different cell types, like in a symphony,” he said.
Laser stimulation can serve as a musical conductor, manipulating the various kinds of neurons in the brain to reveal which important roles they play.
This light-switch technology promises to accelerate scientists’ efforts in mapping which clusters of the brain’s 100 billion neurons warble to each other when a person, for example, recalls a memory or learns a skill. That quest is one of the greatest challenges facing neuroscience.
The channelrhodopsin switch is “really going to blow the lid off the whole analysis of brain function,” said George Augustine, a neurobiologist at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
[ ... Read the full article ... ]
- Memory: Bdnf And Micrornas
Making memories: How one protein does it The JHU Gazette 12 March 2012 [snip] "Studying tiny bits of genetic material that control protein formation in the brain, Johns Hopkins scientists say that they have new clues to how memories are made and how drugs...
- Ted Talk: Gero Miesenboeck
TED Talk: Gero Miesenboeck reengineers a brain July 2010 Watch the talk here "In the quest to map the brain, many scientists have attempted the incredibly daunting task of recording the activity of each neuron. Gero Miesenboeck works backward -- manipulating...
- The Game Brain
An excellent op-ed piece in today's New York Times about the value of exercise - of the physical variety - in mental gymnastics. A Risser suggestion to supplement the intent of the opinion writers: get out there and walk around, but take a camera...
- Omneuron And Fmri
From today's New York Times: Mind Over Matter, With a Machine’s Help By JASON PONTIN Published: August 26, 2007 [snip] Omneuron is one of a number of new companies that are commercializing a brain-scanning technology called real-time functional...
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From Reuters:Brain Surface Stimulation May Ease Parkinson's Mon Jan 3, 2005 06:22 PM GMT By Anne Harding NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Electrical stimulation of regions deep in the brain has become fairly common in recent years for treating Parkinson's...