researchers reporting online on july 26 in current biology, a cell press publication, have for the first time shown that they can control the behavior of monkeys by using pulses of blue light to very specifically
1 particular brain cells. the findings represent a key advance for
optogenetics（光遗传学） , a state-of-the-art method for making causal connections between brain activity and behavior. based on the discovery, the researchers say that similar light-based mind control could likely also be made to work in humans for
2 ends. "we are the first to show that optogenetics can alter the behavior of monkeys," says wim vanduffel of massachusetts general hospital and ku leuven medical school. "this opens the door to use of optogenetics at a large scale in
3 research and to start developing optogenetic-based therapies for humans."
in optogenetics, neurons are made to respond to light through the insertion of light-sensitive
4 5 from particular microbial organisms. earlier studies had primarily
6 this method for use in
7（无脊椎动物） and
8, with only a few studies showing that optogenetics can alter activity in monkey brains on a fine scale.
in the new study, the researchers focused on neurons that control particular eye movements. using optogenetics together with
9 magnetic
10 imaging (fmri), they showed that they could use light to activate these neurons, generating brain activity and subtle changes in eye-movement behavior.
the researchers also found that optogenetic
11 of their focal brain region produced changes in the activity of specific
12 networks located at some distance from the primary site of light
13.
the findings not only pave the way for a much more
14 understanding of how different parts of the brain control behavior, but they may also have important clinical applications in treating parkinson's disease,
15, depression, obsessive-compulsive
16, and other neurological conditions.
"several neurological
17 can be attributed to the
18 of specific cell types in very specific brain regions," vanduffel says. "as already suggested by one of the leading researchers in optogenetics, karl deisseroth from stanford university, it is important to identify the
19 neuronal circuits and the precise nature of the
20 that lead to the neurological disorders and potentially to manipulate those malfunctioning circuits with high precision to restore them. the beauty of optogenetics is that, unlike any other method, one can affect the activity of very specific cell types, leaving others untouched."
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