Mind-control microscope manipulates brain...

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Mind-control microscope manipulates brain...

Mind-control MICROSCOPE changes the behaviour of mice in an instant: Scientists make

the animals do whatever they want by tweaking the brain's 'code' in real time

 

 

    Approach combines cutting-edge techniques to manipulate brain cells

    It uses lasers to create a holographic template which alters cell activity

    So far the tool has been used to alter the behaviour in live mice

    Researchers said it could provide insight how the regions of the brain communicate and even shed new light on brain disorders

 

In a breakthrough that wouldn't look out of place in a science fiction film, researchers said they have been able to control the minds of living animals by tweaking the activity of their brain cells.

 

Using a specialised microscope to tweak activity of brain circuits, they were able to control the behaviour of mice, leading to hopes that we could one day selectively stimulate cells in the brain, like hitting keys on a piano.

 

While mind control may seem like the stuff of dystopian sci-fi nightmares, the team said the findings could provide insight how the different regions of the brain communicate with one another and even shed new light on brain disorders.

 

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley combined cutting-edge techniques to develop a tool which can zoom in on a patch of brain cells (pictured) and alter their activity using laser light

 

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley combined cutting-edge techniques to develop a tool which can zoom in on a patch of brain cells  and alter their activity using laser light

 

The brain is an incredibly complex organ, made up of interconnected clusters of cells which form neural circuits for different functions.

 

Cells within circuits may fire in response to a given task, but deciphering which combination of on-off signals within the circuits achieves the desired effect has remained unclear.

 

The findings were presented at the Annual Meeting of Experimental Biology in San Diego.

 

'With this new microscope, we believe we will soon be able to treat the brain as the keyboard of a piano, so to speak, and write in a sequence of activity that is needed to understand or correct brain function,' said Dr Hillel Adesnik, a neurobiologist at UCB, who led the research.

 

'After more refinements, this instrument may be able to function as a sort of Rosetta Stone to help us crack the neural code.'

 

According to Dr Adesnik, the researchers hope their approach will help to better understand how the brain's cellular machinery works and the 'language' being used by the cells to communicate.

 

He explained: 'We wanted to develop a technology that can offer a general approach to understand the basic syntax of neural signals, so that we can begin to understand what a given brain circuit is doing and perhaps what's gone wrong with that in the case of a disease.'

 

Mice were prepped by fitting glass windows into their skulls so the light could penetrate into their brains.

 

The brain cells were also genetically modified to make them responsive to light, using a technique called optogenetics.

 

Once in position on the animal's head, the tool shines two beams of infrared lasers through one of these windows in order to create a 3D holographic pattern within the brain.

 

The light-responsive brain cells then alter their electrical signals to any pattern the team choose, using the holographic pattern as a template.

 

'We're adapting holographic display technology, optogenetics and sensory biology and behaviour into one complete system that allows an all-optical approach to image and manipulate the nervous system,' said Adesnik.

 

The brain is incredibly complex, made up of interconnected clusters of cells which form neural circuits for different functions.

Cells within circuits may fire in response to a given task, but deciphering which combination of on-off signals within the circuits achieves the desired effect has remained unclear...

The brain is incredibly complex, made up of interconnected clusters of cells which form neural circuits for different functions.

Cells within circuits may fire in response to a given task, but deciphering which combination of on-off signals within the circuits achieves the desired effect has remained unclear

 

The team believes that their findings could provide insight how the different regions of the brain communicate with one another and even shed new light on brain disorders. In future, it may be possible to selectively stimulate cells in the brain by targeting them with light, like hitting keys on a piano

 

The team believes that their findings could provide insight how the different regions of the brain communicate with one another and even shed new light on brain disorders. In future, it may be possible to selectively stimulate cells in the brain by targeting them with light (stock image), like hitting keys on a piano

 

'We've essentially put a lot of disparate existing pieces together to achieve something nobody had yet achieved,' explained Dr Adesnik.

 

Initial tests in live mice used the tool to record the activity of cells during small movements, such as a mouse moving its whiskers.

 

The activity was mapped to a hologram, which could be used as a template to trigger the same network of neurons to fire.

 

But the group is also developing the technology to trick mice into seeing things that aren't there.

 

In animals trained to push a lever in response to seeing a shape, they are using the approach to stimulate brain cells so the animal will think it has seen the shape, which could eventually be applied to memories.

 

USING OPTOGENETICS TO ALTER BRAIN CELLS
Optogenetics uses light to control the activity of brain cells, which could potentially alter behaviour

 

Optogenetics uses light to control the activity of brain cells, which could potentially alter behaviour

Optogenetics (from Greek optos, meaning 'visible') uses light to control neurons which have been genetically sensitised to light.

 

The technique, known as optogenetics, was pioneered by Karl Diesseroth at Stanford University, is a new way to manipulate and study nerve cells using light.

 

The techniques are rapidly becoming the standard method for investigating brain function.

 

It involves introducing light-sensitive proteins into cells, which when activated, can affect the cell's activity.

 

Experiments in rats have shown that when neurons are altered with these protein complexes and targeted with light – typically using fibre optics to deliver laser pulses – the proteins become activated and change the activity of the cell, effectively switching it on or off depending on the proteins introduced.

 

This provides an invaluable method for scientists to peer into the complex network of cells to see which regions are implicated in different scenarios.

 

But the approach also has great potential for treatment, where the activity of specific sets of brain cells could be tweaked using light.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3526125/Mind-control-MICROSCOPE-changes-behaviour-mice-instant-Scientists-make-animals-want-tweaking-brain-s-code-real-time.html