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[b](Medical Xpress) -- In a major step forward in optogenetics, MIT researcher Christian Wentz has developed a sort of wireless hat that can be used to transmit light to photo sensitized cells in the brain, thus stimulating them to fire when struck by light, or to cease firing, whichever has been programmed for. Previously such optical therapies were done by connecting a light source to a cable or tether to deliver the power for the light sources (lasers or LEDs); now as described in a paper he and his colleagues have published in the Journal of Neural Engineering, a transmitter can be used to create a magnetic field, which in turn is converted to electricity in a tiny hat placed atop a mouse’s head, that is then used to power the implanted light sources.
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Over the past several years, the field of optogenetics has arisen, mostly due to the efforts of Ed Boyd, a former physicist and electrical engineer. Optogenetics is where brain cells (neurons) are coaxed into growing their own photo receptors by inserting the genes of other cells, such as green algae, that naturally respond to light, into the neurons being studied. When light is applied, the newly grown photo receptors open and allow the flow of positively charged ions to interact with the normal firing mechanism of the neurons, which means they can be controlled with an external source, in this case light.
The whole purpose of such research is to find out if such devices might help people who suffer from brain disorders such as epilepsy, which is in essence, a disorder of the brain where neurons begin firing all willy nilly causing an electrical storm of sorts, resulting in convulsions. If certain neurons that exist within the brain that are normally supposed to control such outbursts could be stimulated via light, then the storm could perhaps be headed off before it ever really gets going, thus eliminating the convulsions altogether.
The newly developed hat developed by Wentz, controlled by a computer via USB port, will allow researchers to study the way neurons in the brain work in much more natural situations. Without a tether, subjects (mice) under study should be able to move around the way they normally would in their normal environment, which of course allows the brain to function as it would were it not in a lab; the optimal situation, of course, for studying how the brain works.[/release]
[url=http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-optogenetics-wireless-brain.html]Source[/url]
[url=http://www.ted.com/talks/ed_boyden.html]TED video[/url]
:tinfoil:
Wait... so basically we can power stuff using the electrical impulses in our brain?
[editline]28th June 2011[/editline]
Wait, no I'm horribly wrong.
So it's a bit like controlling the brain? Whilst I understand the whole mind control fear, the applications for this could be pretty cool. For example, implement this Tech into the sensory parts of the brain, such as the audio part, and one could invent a primitive form of telepathy.
Poor mice :(
Eh, this is the same thing they've done before, except now it can be done without wires. Hardly sensational.
If only we could transmit with this. But that's kinda cool, the antennae looks a little wire though.
Wirelessly stimulating specific neurons to fire action potentials? Interesting and a bit scary at the same time.
[QUOTE=demoguy08;30770634]Eh, this is the same thing they've done before, [b]except now it can be done without wires.[/b] Hardly sensational.[/QUOTE]
That's kind of a biggie...
mini MRI + this = brain transceiver?
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