Stanford Team Re-Engineering Brain Cells to be Controlled by Lasers

Scientists are working on genetically engineered laser-controlled brain cells.  You could take the adjectives from five scifi books, roll them into a ball and shoot them through a hyperbole gun and STILL not come up with something so incredible sounding.  The work could utterly revolutionize neurotherapy, psychology, and the goopy goo of "you" inside that bone basket you carry around on top of your neck.

Stanford scientist Dr Deisseroth and colleagues work on the awesome idea of "optogenetics", re-engineering cells to be controlled by light.  This means they can access deep brain tissues with needles and fiber-optics, instead of the traditional knives and implants that make brain surgery such a serious proposition.

Making the science sound even more fictiony, the genes which have been virally injected into existing cells are derived from light-sensitive algae and some salt-dwelling extremophiles (lifeforms capable of surviving in environments fatal to almost everything else.)  If movie logic is to be believed, this would turn the patient into a infectiously shambling photosynthetic plant-zombie who raids kitchens.  Luckily it isn't, and instead you end up with a brain structure that can be turned on or off by pulses of yellow or blue light (giving a whole new meaning to "feeling blue.")

The work is progressing well in trials on mice, and turns up in Nature every time they decide to report something - so at least somebody knows that "Method of mood control via laser, including moods other than 'vaporized'", is a big deal.

Deisseroth Lab
Laser-brain

Comments

[Narendra Nath]

Each cell in the human body has an independent electric field and the cells are able to communicate with one another through it. The human brain is no exception. The neurons therein not only interact with one another but also with the external signals received from outside the body. This has been established through the studies conducted by the famous Oxford University Professor of Neurology, Dr. Eccles. He observed activity in the neurons of the Supplemnetary Motor Area of the brain when none was expected. It was attributed to such interactions with the external sources. He even postulated a non=physical covering around the SMA which records these interactions. Such a record does not die with the physical death of the body / brain. How does it get carried permanently is an interesting subject of study. It may well unravel the truth about the nature of the life-force and its connection with universal/individual consciousness of living beings!

[Michael]

Mind control and remote neural monitoring have been accomplished through the use of extra low radio frequencies for quite some time. The US government utilizes the ionosphere and satellites to project these radio frequencies and monitoring the electromagnetic field of your brain and entire body. It sounds like they are now developing this same capability using light sources. A human brain is nothing more than a super computer that can be artificially controlled and monitored from long distances.