The technique optogenetics has won an abundance of prestigious awards and yet most people, outside the realm of neuroscience, do not know what it is or why it is useful. Optogenetics poses a solution to a difficult challenge within neuroscience research. The complexity of the brain has been a huge pitfall in the field. For several years, scientists have been puzzled as to how to manipulate one type of cell in the brain while simultaneously leaving all of the others unaltered. Optogenetics elegantly combines optics and genetics to monitor neurons to overcome this issue.
In 2010, optogenetics was named the Nature Method of the Year ("Method of the Year 2010"). While this technique and the researchers who contributed to its development are largely being recognized now, the theory behind optogenetics has existed for several years. In fact, opsins, proteins that undergo conformational changes when exposed to light, had been of interest to many researchers since the 1970s.
In 2002, Gero Miesenböck’s lab modified neurons and showed that they could be stimulated by light. They employed a multi-protein system. Miesenböck is considered the founder of what is now known as optogenetics. Also in 2002, Ernst Bamberg, Georg Nagel, Peter Hegemann, and their colleagues published a paper reporting that they discovered an opsin that drives phototaxis, the movement in response to light, in green algae. They suggested that this protein, channelrhodopsin-2, would be useful to manipulate membrane potential, which essentially determines whether a neuron fires or not. These papers influenced the actions of the Deisseroth lab in the early 2000s (Boyden 2011).
Amongst the researchers credited for their pioneering work in optogenetics is Edward Boyden. I...
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Diester, Ilka, Matthew T. Kaufman, Murtaza Mogri, Ramin Pashaie, Werapong Goo, Ofer Yizhar, Charu Ramakrishnan, Karl Deisseroth, and Krishna V. Shenoy. "An Optogenetic Toolbox Designed for Primates." Nature Neuroscience 14.3 (2011): 387-97. Print.
"Method of the Year 2010." Nature Methods 8.1 (2010): 1. Print.
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Nagel, G. et al. Channelrhodopsin-2, a directly light-gated cation-selective membrane channel. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100, 13940-13945 (2003).
"The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America." National Institute of Mental Health. NIMH, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. .
Moreover, a future experiment is to determine the effect that the distance between the lamp and the solution has on the rate of photosynthesis. Several experiments with a similar setup to this experiment that vary the distances between the lamp and solution could be used to test this.
Even if optogenetics remains as purely a research tool and does not give rise to beneficial effects directly in our species, it has still offered humans an unparalleled look into the function and dysfunction of the nervous system. Optogenetics has been adopted in laboratories around the world and enabled scientists to increase or decrease the activity of exclusive brain expanses on command. Great insight has been obtained through the use of this research tool and a great deal more
National Institute of Mental Health (2014). The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America. Retrieved June 12, 2014, from http://www.nimh.nih.org/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml
Kandel, E. R., J. H. Schwarz, and T. M. Jessel. Principles of Neural Science. 3rd ed. Elsevier. New York: 1991.
Yeager, Ashley. "Gene Therapy with Electrical Pulses Spurs Nerve Growth." Science News. N.p., 23 Apr. 2014. Web.
...ptogenetics but places parameters on when it can be used. So, optogenetics would be a good option for stimulating a neural pathway but may not be useful for more accurate stimulation like that needed in the visual field.
Kandel, E.R. & Schwartz, J.L. Priciples of Neuroscience. Elsevier (1985). (As cited by Amen & Waugh 1998)
...t optogenetics has huge potential to help save lives and that it will have a big impact in the near future around the world. Because optogenetics is performed on the brain, one mess up has the potential to change the patient’s life drastically if not done correctly, so its performance on humans will not be soon because of the need for this technique to be perfected. “Neuroscientists are eagerly, but not always successfully, looking for proof that optogenetics—a celebrated technique that uses pulses of visible light to genetically alter brain cells to be excited or silenced—can be as successful in complex and large brains as it has been in rodent models” (“Neuroscience Method” 1). Scientists have yet to uncover the endless possibilities of optogenetics and when they do, it can improve the well-being of humans all over the world and thrive for the generations to come.
Nerve cells generate electrical signals to transmit information. Neurons are not necessarily intrinsically great electrical conductors, however, they have evolved specialized mechanisms for propagating signals based on the flow of ions across their membranes.
This paper involves how the brain and neurons works. The target is to display the brain and neurons behavior by sending signals. The nervous system that sends it like a text message. This becomes clear on how we exam in the brain. The techniques show how the brain create in order for the nerves about 100 billion cells. Neurons in the brain may be the only fractions of an inch in length. How powerful the brain could be while controlling everything around in. When it’s sending it signals to different places, and the neurons have three types: afferent neurons, efferent neurons, and the interneurons. In humans we see the old part of emotions which we create memories plus our brain controls heart beating, and breathing. The cortex helps us do outside of the brain touch, feel, smell, and see. It’s also our human thinking cap which we plan our day or when we have to do something that particular day. Our neurons are like pin head. It’s important that we know how our brain and neurons play a big part in our body. There the one’s that control our motions, the way we see things. Each neuron has a job to communicate with other neurons by the brain working network among each cell. Neurons are almost like a forest where they sending chemical signals. Neurons link up but they don’t actually touch each other. The synapses separates there branches. They released 50 different neurons.
The least invasive method of BCI uses a set of electrodes attached to the scalp (Figure 3) to read brain signals however, to get a higher resolution, a chip can be inserted into the grey matter of the brain. (Grabianowski, n.d.) . The use of BCI has great implications for people with limited mobility and ghpeople who have lost limbs and has been used to control prosthetic arms. (Neurogadget,
Action potential is another method of transmission of chemical information from one neuron to another. It takes place in an area of plasma membrane in which high concentration of voltage-gated 〖Na〗^+ and K^+channels. The only ions involved in action potential are 〖Na〗^+ and K^+. As chemical reach a certain level, the neuron will eject the extra concentration into the adjacent neuron. One of the keen differences between graded and action potential is that the presence of refractory period does not make summation possible because of its “all or none” nature.
The Central Nervous System (CNS) consists of approximately 100 billion linked neurons, furthermore, it can be categorised into two major divisio...
Fluorescence was first discovered in Aequorea victoria, which synthesizes aquorin, a chemiluminescent protein. It is a luciferase that catalyses coelenterazine oxidation through a calcium dependent reaction to emit blue light and green fluorescence under UV light. Soon after, it was cloned and GFP was expressed in bacteria (Williams, Slatko and McCarrey, 2007).
Kessler, Chiu . et. al."The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America."NIMH RSS. National Institute of Mental Health , n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.