Laser beams offer neuroscientists new insights into the brain’s ‘internal GPS’ system in mouse studies – Technology News, Firstpost

FP trend10 November 2020 20:42:26

Scientists have found a way to mentally teleport mice to a different location by stimulating a neuron in their brain. The team used laser beams to reactivate the cells.

The researchers used light to read and write electrical activity in the brain. The mice received a reward in a place that they saved as memories within their “local cells” (a type of neuron). Using two light-based experiments, the scientists activated the same cells and used the memories of this place to make the mice feel and act as if they had returned to the place where they would be rewarded.

The research was conducted by a group of neuroscientists from University College London (UCL) and the results were published in the journal Cell. Explaining how the whole experiment happened, a press release UCL said the team had used two optics-based technologies.

“First, they engineered neurons to express genetically encoded calcium sensors, which allow cells to light up when active. Second, they expressed light-sensitive ‘optogenetic’ proteins in the neurons themselves, allowing them to activate specific cells with laser light beams “.

By combining these two techniques, they were able to conduct targeted cell activation of the mouse locus. These cells located in the hippocampus, the area of ​​the brain responsible for memory and learning, are normally activated when mice are in a new area and looking for new memory. When the cells were artificially activated, the mice were “mentally teleported” and felt as if they had returned to the place where they had saved those memories.

The claim noted that the “cellular stimulation of the place” was sufficient to retrieve the memory of the rewarded location in the mouse so that it began looking for the reward in the new location. The UCL noted that this is “the first demonstration of how the activation of the cells of the place allows us to recover the memories of our environment and helps us to navigate”.