Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Researchers Switch Neurons Off and On Using Noninvasive Ultrasound

Posted by Soulskill on from the origins-of-a-tasp dept.

Jason Koebler writes: Optogenetics, the ability to control neurons using bursts of light, has been one of the most promising breakthroughs in neurology of this decade. It's been a boon for researchers, but its invasive nature (the brain must usually be exposed) has held the technology back. Sreekanth Chalasani of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies described a new, noninvasive method of controlling neurons using ultrasound pulses in Nature Communications. For the first time ever, he was able to manipulate a genetically modified organism using a new technique called sonogenetics.

37 comments

  1. Sreekanth Chalasani by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    cool Star Wars name

  2. Re:Funded by Republican corporate welfare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Even worse than the money they are funneling into this that is wasted, is the effect of this research. It furthers the Republican's plans to control our minds. Control our minds.

  3. Love of Music by ememisya · · Score: 1

    Love of music just got a new meaning: http://motherboard.vice.com/re...

    1. Re:Love of Music by pecosdave · · Score: 2

      Posting to undo mod.....

      --
      The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
    2. Re:Love of Music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now I'm curious if it was to undo an upmod or a downmod.

    3. Re:Love of Music by SpankiMonki · · Score: 1

      That's the thing, you won't know until you observe it. Sucks to be you.

    4. Re:Love of Music by pecosdave · · Score: 1

      Down mod.

      I modded it down because it looked like spam at first. After modding I got curious and clicked the link, I found that it actually was on topic.

      I take my modding duties seriously and don't mod as a joke, which I'm pretty sure I saw someone else doing last time I had points, I mean the other guy countered my down mod of the "brought to you by the Golden Girls" post. Usually I don't have misfires like this one, but I'm human.

      --
      The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
  4. Well crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Every listening to headphones fetish just got a lot creepier.....

  5. The question that come with this is... by Eloking · · Score: 1

    Why would you want to switch neuron off? On a medical standpoint I mean.

    --
    Elok
    1. Re:The question that come with this is... by crgrace · · Score: 2

      Turning a neuron "off" doesn't make much sense unless you are destroying it.

      Neurons work in two ways, they are either "excitatory" in which case they tend to create further firing, or "inhibitory" in which case they tend to suppress further firing. I'll assume you meant "making it more inhibitory" when you said turning it off.

      We are a long way from such things, but you could imagine the utility of "turning off" or making neurons more inhibitory in the case of Parkinson's Disease where there is too much superflous random firing that leads to tremor.

      Another case where we might want to calm the neurons are in people that experience PTSD or severe depression.

      Yet another case is Epilepsy. You can kind of think of Epilepsy as a "neural storm" (this is a ROUGH analogy). So, one option to control it is if you can sense a seizure starting up you can shut down it's ability to propagate through the brain.

      These are just some of the possible uses of "switching a neuron off".

    2. Re:The question that come with this is... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      Why would you want to switch neuron off? On a medical standpoint I mean.

      There is no medical reason, but there are research reasons. Turning neurons on and off helps us understand how brains work, and what causes brain disorders, like epilepsy and dementia. Even single neurons can have an effect. For instance, there is the Jennifer Aniston cell.

    3. Re:The question that come with this is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean giving mice erections isn't a good enough medical reason?

    4. Re:The question that come with this is... by hackwrench · · Score: 1

      By "inhibitory" in which case they tend to suppress further firing, I gather you mean that they transmit a signal to a downlevel neuron that makes it more likely to disregard another neuron's signal that makes it more likely to fire. But what if you want to see for a little while what happens when a neuron never fires, but want to make it go back to the way it was before you made it not fire at all. I would call that turning the neuron off.

    5. Re:The question that come with this is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Disable neurons relaying negative stimuli, like pain? Or to stop sources of unwanted noise, like in a seizure?

    6. Re:The question that come with this is... by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      Neurons work in two ways, they are either "excitatory" in which case they tend to create further firing, or "inhibitory" in which case they tend to suppress further firing.

      Well, then allow me to try to be among the first to ask the stupid question:

      If it can be excitatory, and inhibitory ... shouldn't there be a corresponding "not doing a damned thing" state?

      You know, like ... oh, I don't know ... off?

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    7. Re:The question that come with this is... by crgrace · · Score: 1

      If it can be excitatory, and inhibitory ... shouldn't there be a corresponding "not doing a damned thing" state?

      That would be "dead". You don't need optogenetics for that.

  6. How technologically advanced... by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I just turn them on and off the old-fashioned way, with caffeine and alcohol.

    --
    That is all.
  7. Ultrasound pulses...please... by msimm · · Score: 1

    This is something my wife could do with only the sound of her voice!

    --
    Quack, quack.
  8. misleading by crgrace · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Again, the summary was highly misleading. Optogenetics only works with GENETICALLY MODIFIED neurons, so won't easily work as a therapeutic technique. That's OK, because what it is used for is basic neuroscience research.

    The idea is if you want to look at specific neural pathways you can optogenetically modify them to light up when you are shining a laser on them AND they are performing a task you are interested in. You can think of an optogenetically modified neuron as a neuron that you can probe at high speeds.

    This is exciting because you can see, for example, functional connectivity at full speed in real, operating brains. This could enable the creation of a functional connectome which is kind of a traffic map of the brain (neurological connection studies give you the road map, optogenetics can give you the traffic). Previous techniques (such as neurotransmitter tagging) are far too slow to make such a "traffic map".

    Prior to this "sonogenetics" research, only really flat specimens could be used since lasers cannot penetrate deeply. This is nice development.

    1. Re:misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They should use gamma radiation. It has good penetration and lights everything up.

    2. Re:misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      1. You can genetically modify neurons locally by viral transfection. You inject an inactivated virus carrying whatever piece of DNA that you want and it will import that into a subset of cells' genome. Hence the use of optogenetics in humans is possible and is actively explored.

      2. Optogenetics techniques are actually two-fold.
                  a. You can probe neurons as you described so that they light up when they are active. Very useful for establishing a functional connectome indeed but you could also think of localizing epiletic foci without having to lay down a sheet of electrodes (which have a certain, not so precise, resolution anyway)

                  b. You can activate / inactivate neurons with light. Which means you can actually control neuronal activity with light pulses so that they follow closely the pattern you are delivering to them. Very useful in basic research too. But also has therapeutic potential. Think Deep Brain Stimulation without the electrodes. Think Parkinson tremor relief. Or epilepsy control. Or artificial vision.

      3. Depth of light penetration is not an issue. If your laser can not get deep enough (and this is getting improved quickly by engineering optogenetic molecules, both sensors and actuators, with a red-shifted spectrum) you can still deliver the light with an optic fiber.

      This website: http://optogenetics.weebly.com/what-is-it.html seems to have a good introduction

    3. Re:misleading by jbengt · · Score: 1

      Optogenetics only works with GENETICALLY MODIFIED neurons, so won't easily work as a therapeutic technique.

      From TFA:

      It's probably far too early to talk seriously about potential applications in humans, but let's do it anyway . . .

  9. We are so in our infancy by BlueCoder · · Score: 1

    The brain is the communication hub for the body. It's has a spinal column that spans neurons across the body. Nerves whose purpose is input and output to the brain.... And we are playing with switching them on and off with light and sound.... We haven't even figures out how nerves address the brain and each other. We don't even know how to coax the brain into making new connections. So primitive.

  10. This is terrible news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can anybody recommend a brand of tinfoil that can block ultrasound?

  11. Mind control? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Wonder if this will be used to continue MK Ultra?

    1. Re:Mind control? by strstr · · Score: 0

      mkultra continued under new project names and budgets. it never ended.

      non-lethal weapons tech targeting the brain and body parts of citizens has been in use and tested since the 1960s easily.

      today it's perfected.

      they've developed interferometry technology - radar and satellite based - to scan whole homes, brains, body parts, and bombard people with signals, and do environmental tampering.

      details @ obamasweapon.com | drrobertduncan.com

  12. Invasion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Turning neurons 'on' and 'off' - it couldn't be any more invasive.

    1. Re:Invasion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, that was my first reaction. "Excuse me, I am going to switch off your brain now. Don't worry, it's a noninvasive procedure."

  13. Just a sec. Telephone's ringing by PPH · · Score: 1

    "The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep."

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  14. Genetically modified organism by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Apparently a lot of people came away with a different idea of what's going on than I did when I read genetically modified organism, because I thought it meant making an organism that was more susceptible to having ultrasound directly affect neurons because the neurons were slightly different than in other organisms, and therefore could not lead directly to applications to humans.

  15. Ultrasound by nospam007 · · Score: 2

    Well, I just bought a seconds-hand ultrasound machine for my runner's knee.
    I'll have to try if it can make me more intelligent as well.

    Now I have to go get flowers for Algernon.

  16. lol. this is nothing new by strstr · · Score: 0

    this is pathetic as fuck research.

    DOD patent from 1974 describes how to remotely map out and remotely alter brain/neurons in the body.

    the technique uses traditional radar and satellites, or interferometry, to do it.

    been deployed and in use since 1976.

    the standard initial design envisioned using radio frequencies from 1MHz to 40GHz.

    modern designs are thought to use terahertz frequencies.

    obamasweapon.com

    https://www.google.com/patents/US3951134

  17. Sounds like by WallyL · · Score: 1

    I initially thought the last words he used were Soong genetics.