Editor's Summary
5 April 2007
Neural circuits in a new light
Sophisticated neuroengineering techniques are making it possible to image and control living brain circuits. The latest development in this area involves the transfection of a light-activated chloride pump from a microbe into mouse hippocampal neurons, thereby permitting inhibition of neural activity on millisecond timescales. This complements an existing tool for activating neurons via a light-activated algal channel. The two channels respond to different wavelengths, permitting fast bidirectional control over neural activity in the same circuit. And in intact animals too, since locomotion of transgenic C. elegans roundworms with both channels incorporated is influenced by light. The system can be genetically targeted to specific classes of neurons, raising the possibility that it could lead to optical therapies for neurological disorders.
News and Views: Neuroscience: Controlling neural circuits with light
Two light-sensitive proteins from unicellular organisms have been harnessed to rapidly activate or silence neurons. This optical remote control allows precise, millisecond control of neural circuits.
Michael Häusser & Spencer L. Smith
doi:10.1038/446617a
Article: Multimodal fast optical interrogation of neural circuitry
Feng Zhang, Li-Ping Wang, Martin Brauner, Jana F. Liewald, Kenneth Kay, Natalie Watzke, Phillip G. Wood, Ernst Bamberg, Georg Nagel, Alexander Gottschalk & Karl Deisseroth
doi:10.1038/nature05744
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,624K) | Supplementary information
