Using lasers, researchers were able to take over the worm’s brain and instruct it to turn in any direction they chose. They implanted false sensory information, fooling the worm into thinking food was nearby. (Image courtesy of Askin Kocabas and Nature.)
Researchers use precise lasers to manipulate neurons in worms' brains (Harvard Gazette). The following article by Peter Reuell originally appeared in the Harvard Gazette on September 25, 2012: I n the quest to understand how the brain turns sensory input into behavior, Harvard scientists have crossed a major threshold. Using precisely targeted lasers, researchers have been able to take over a tiny animal's brain, instruct it to turn in any direction they wish, and even implant false sensory information, fooling the animal into thinking food was nearby. As described in a Sept. 23 paper published in the journal Nature , a team made up of Sharad Ramanathan , an assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology and of applied physics; Askin Kocabas, a postdoctoral fellow in molecular and cellular biology; Ching-Han Shen, a research assistant in molecular and cellular biology; and Zengcai V. Guo, from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, were able to take control of Caenorhabditis elegans - tiny, transparent worms - by manipulating neurons in the worms' brain. The work, Ramanathan said, is important because, by taking control of complex behaviors in a relatively simple animal - C. elegans have just 302 neurons - researchers can understand how its nervous system functions. "If we can understand simple nervous systems to the point of completely controlling them, then it may be a possibility that we can gain a comprehensive understanding of more complex systems," Ramanathan said.
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