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In salt ponds it is noticed that different bacteria are sensitive to specific light frequency that caused their activation.:
In particular, synechococcus, halobacteria, and dunaliella affect the color of salt ponds.
How Does Optogenetics Work?
Optogenetics began with the discovery of opsins, such as ChR2. Opsins are light-sensitive channels that cause the depolarization or hyperpolarization of neurons through mechanisms such as the influx of ions or protein signaling cascades (Kim et al. 2017).
Opsins are sensitive to specific wavelengths of light, leading to the activation or inhibition of neural activity. For example, blue light (~470 nm) activates ChR2, causing an influx of Na+ ions and, in turn, depolarizing the neuron (Boyden et al. 2005). With viral expression and transgenic animal models, researchers can target optogenetic probes to genetically-defined neuron populations and across brain-wide projections (Kim et al. 2017).
Multi-disciplinary collaborations between neuroscientists, biologists, and engineers have led to the expansion of the optogenetic toolbox. Opsins have been discovered for manipulating neurons on or off at varying speeds and with different wavelengths of light (see Table 1). For example, Halorhdopsin, an inhibitory opsin, was found to turn off neurons, and red-activated opsins, such as JAWS, were developed to penetrate deeper into the brain (Kim et al. 2017).
In neuroscience, optogenetics has enabled scientists to link neural circuits, behaviour, and function (Kim et al. 2017).
Optogenetics Guide
Optogenetics tools can be broadly classified based on their functions into two groups:
Optogenetics with SOUL
Investigator Guoping Feng and colleagues have developed optogenetic tools that allow non-invasive stimulation of neurons in the deep brain.
In order to stimulate neurons with minimal invasiveness, Feng and colleagues engineered a new type of opsin. The original breakthrough optogenetics protocol used channelrhodopsin, a light-sensitive channel discovered in algae. This new study creates a method that can activate any mouse brain region, independent of its location, non-invasively.
video: Amygdala Mouse
article w/video: Optogenetics: Light as method for brain cell remote control
article: Optogenetics
Optogenetics is a technique that involves the use of light to manipulate the activity of cells with high temporal and spatial precision, either in vitro or in vivo. By allowing individual cell types to be selectively targeted, and their activity switched on and off over a biologically relevant timescale of milliseconds, optogenetics provides a degree of specificity and control far greater than that which can be achieved using drugs or lesions. In 2010, Nature declared optogenetics to be their ‘method of the year’, while Science classed it as one of the breakthroughs of the last decade.
article: Optogenetics: A New Technology To Control The Human Brain. Will People Prevent the Rise of A “New Totality”?
Doctor Sarah Lisanby from the National Institute of Mental Health in Maryland can use those brain maps to make different parts of the human body move by the magnetic stimulation of its brain even against his own will (see this). To do this, she is using a magnetic coil which pulsates a magnetic field in a specific frequency, corresponding to the frequency of the activity of neurons in the brain spot, which controls the movements of a specific body part. The magnetic field can produce electric currents in the neurons, responsible for those movements, across the skull.
The brain research financed by the USA and the European Union produced a discovery of the new technology of the control of the activity of the human brain. It is called optogenetics and it is using light. To make this work, it is necessary to introduce special proteins into neurons in the brain by means of special viruses.
Then the light, blinking in the brain in a specific frequency will produce the same neuronal activity as normal neuronal activity in the brain would produce.
In particular, synechococcus, halobacteria, and dunaliella affect the color of salt ponds.
| This leads to the discovery of Opsins. |
How Does Optogenetics Work?
Optogenetics began with the discovery of opsins, such as ChR2. Opsins are light-sensitive channels that cause the depolarization or hyperpolarization of neurons through mechanisms such as the influx of ions or protein signaling cascades (Kim et al. 2017).
Opsins are sensitive to specific wavelengths of light, leading to the activation or inhibition of neural activity. For example, blue light (~470 nm) activates ChR2, causing an influx of Na+ ions and, in turn, depolarizing the neuron (Boyden et al. 2005). With viral expression and transgenic animal models, researchers can target optogenetic probes to genetically-defined neuron populations and across brain-wide projections (Kim et al. 2017).
Multi-disciplinary collaborations between neuroscientists, biologists, and engineers have led to the expansion of the optogenetic toolbox. Opsins have been discovered for manipulating neurons on or off at varying speeds and with different wavelengths of light (see Table 1). For example, Halorhdopsin, an inhibitory opsin, was found to turn off neurons, and red-activated opsins, such as JAWS, were developed to penetrate deeper into the brain (Kim et al. 2017).
In neuroscience, optogenetics has enabled scientists to link neural circuits, behaviour, and function (Kim et al. 2017).
Optogenetics Guide
Optogenetics tools can be broadly classified based on their functions into two groups:
- Actuators are genetically-encoded tools for light-activated control of proteins; e.g., microbial opsins and optical switches
- Sensors are genetically-encoded reporters of molecular signals; e.g., calcium indicators
Optogenetics with SOUL
Investigator Guoping Feng and colleagues have developed optogenetic tools that allow non-invasive stimulation of neurons in the deep brain.
In order to stimulate neurons with minimal invasiveness, Feng and colleagues engineered a new type of opsin. The original breakthrough optogenetics protocol used channelrhodopsin, a light-sensitive channel discovered in algae. This new study creates a method that can activate any mouse brain region, independent of its location, non-invasively.
video: Amygdala Mouse
article w/video: Optogenetics: Light as method for brain cell remote control
article: Optogenetics
Optogenetics is a technique that involves the use of light to manipulate the activity of cells with high temporal and spatial precision, either in vitro or in vivo. By allowing individual cell types to be selectively targeted, and their activity switched on and off over a biologically relevant timescale of milliseconds, optogenetics provides a degree of specificity and control far greater than that which can be achieved using drugs or lesions. In 2010, Nature declared optogenetics to be their ‘method of the year’, while Science classed it as one of the breakthroughs of the last decade.
article: Optogenetics: A New Technology To Control The Human Brain. Will People Prevent the Rise of A “New Totality”?
Doctor Sarah Lisanby from the National Institute of Mental Health in Maryland can use those brain maps to make different parts of the human body move by the magnetic stimulation of its brain even against his own will (see this). To do this, she is using a magnetic coil which pulsates a magnetic field in a specific frequency, corresponding to the frequency of the activity of neurons in the brain spot, which controls the movements of a specific body part. The magnetic field can produce electric currents in the neurons, responsible for those movements, across the skull.
The brain research financed by the USA and the European Union produced a discovery of the new technology of the control of the activity of the human brain. It is called optogenetics and it is using light. To make this work, it is necessary to introduce special proteins into neurons in the brain by means of special viruses.
Then the light, blinking in the brain in a specific frequency will produce the same neuronal activity as normal neuronal activity in the brain would produce.
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