Implanted Optogenetic Light Switch Lets Scientists Flip Neurons On and Off 26
the_newsbeagle writes: Optogenetics is a fairly new (and fairly awesome) research tool for neuroscientists: By using light to jolt certain neurons into action, they can study how those neurons function in the mouse brain. But getting the light to those neurons has been difficult. Previous systems have required either fiber optic cables that tether the mouse to a computer, or heavy head-mounted receivers. Now Stanford's Ada Poon has invented a tiny and fully implantable system that wirelessly receives the signal to stimulate, and uses a micro-LED to activate the neurons. The device will let researchers study brain function while mice are running around, interacting socially, etc.
The Optogenetic Lights Witch (Score:2)
Couldn't avoid the oncoming ditch
Parked there in her beard
Due to Burma Shave feared
Her limerick was thick and rich.
I've long seen this as one of the (Score:2)
...key steps along the path that would allow seamless transition into becoming a digital mind.
Now, one needs a more advanced version that can (by pulse frequency / pulse patterns, light frequency, directionality, etc) communicate with many neurons at once at an individual level (the neurons having been "primed" to this behavior by means of selective photosensitive chemicals, inserted genes or nanostructures - their task would be roughly the complexity of a RFID chip, but would have to be done at incredibly
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As a biologist I can assure you this would be a form of slow suicide, not a transfer of your mind into a digital form. What the neuron is doing electrically at any one given time is not the full scope of what it is doing, or can do. Considering that neuroscientists don't know how long term memory is stored, you would not be transferring memories, as well as not transferring all functions of each neuron. It might make for a fun sci fi movie, but it wouldn't work. But you were probably kidding anyway.
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Which would be a good point if I had written "only monitor electrical activity. But what I actually wrote was:
Something that I later described:
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To put it another way: everything in the universe can be simulated.... given enough data and processing power. Of course, it's preposterously impractical to simulate an entire neuron from first principles, modeling every last subatomic particle, or to think that one could measure them all (even ignoring Heisenberg!). But of course, it's also preposterous to think that either of these things are requirements.
To pick a random example amount countless: What exactly would be the point to modeling a phospholipid
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Simulating a neuron, and getting something to actually act exactly like a brain made up of billions of neurons are two completely different things. I am a biologist, not a hardware engineer, so I can only talk from the biology and neuroscience angles. I have had this discussion before here with people who are not biologists. Scientists still don't know how a single neuron works, not even close, so recreating it is still impossible. Plus, there are principles that we still do not understand, and therefore ca
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Given the premise of an accurate simulation of a neuron and its interactions, how does that not logically imply the ability to simulate a collection of them by letting them interact in the same simulation, given sufficient processing power, memory, etc? If I can simulate the behavior of a single X, then I can simulate the behavior of a thousand Xs, a billion Xs,
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Corr: That should have read "Unless you think that neurons are physically unknowable"
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I look forward to seeing progress on this endeavor,but so far I have seen none. I can't wait for someone to prove my claim that hardware will not imitate a living brain wrong. By the way, most neuroscientists outside the field of cognitive neuroscience agree with me, and several have written entire books on the subject of wetware vs. hardware. Yes, there are neuroscientists who think it can be done, but they have not made any progress in that direction. Not even a little. Since you and I and everyone else d
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Gee, I really wish I had written something like:
Instead of whatever it was that you think that I wrote.
No, I never talked about literally planting RFID chips. I said a task of roughly the com
Great to read about this (Score:2)
Cool for research (Score:2)
In humans, an implantable optical "pulse generator" and fiber optic leads would be no problem at all to manufacture or implant (in a similar housing to modern pacemakers / neurostimulators.)
oblig Fletch (Score:2)
Fletch: Comanche Indian. Bye.
Using light ... (Score:2)