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. 2011 Nov:2011:16.
Epub 2011 Nov 30.

Optogenetics: using light to control the brain

Edward S Boyden

Optogenetics: using light to control the brain

Edward S Boyden. Cerebrum. 2011 Nov.
No abstract available

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Figures

None
Courtesy of the MIT McGovern Institute, Julie Pryor, Charles Jennings, Sputnik Animation, and Ed Boyden.
Figure 1
Figure 1
3-D rendering of a neuron expressing the light-gated cation channel channelrhodopsin-2 (dots on the neuron surface), and being illuminated by a beam of blue light, causing it to fire an electrical spike or action potential (white waves propagating away from cell body). Credit: MIT McGovern Institute, Julie Pryor, Charles Jennings, Sputnik Animation, and Ed Boyden.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Rendering of a neural network in the brain, containing neurons that express a light-driven neural silencer (like a halorhodopsin or archaerhodopsin), so that when the neural network is illuminated with orange light, the illuminated part of the network is quieted (neurons are shaded dark). Credit: MIT McGovern Institute, Julie Pryor, Charles Jennings, Sputnik Animation, and Ed Boyden.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Raw electrical recording of light-activated spikes (driven by 15 ms blue light pulses) acquired from the first channelrhodopsin-2-expressing neuron recorded, in the study that culminated in our first paper on controlling the activity of neurons with light. The recording was performed on a cultured hippocampal neuron with the whole-cell patch clamp method, in current-clamp mode.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Rendering of a neural network in the brain, containing many kinds of neurons, in which one kind of neuron, the basket cell is selectively expressing channelrhodopsin-2, so that when the neural network is illuminated with blue light, just the basket cells fire (indicated by white highlighting). Credit: MIT McGovern Institute, Julie Pryor, Charles Jennings, Sputnik Animation, and Ed Boyden.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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