Optogenetics
Until recently neuroscientists have been unable to see how the brain works in precise detail. Basic genetic researchers have brought in the solution in the form of micro-organisms that rely on light-responsive “opsin” proteins to survive.
Instead of electrodes or liquids, researchers insert opsin proteins into specific braincells of freely moving animals through a virus. Once there, these proteins insert genetic material that will cause the neuron to manufacture the light-sensitive protein itself. Then researchers order specific neurons to fire by using flashes of light.
This method is called Optogenetics (Optics + genetics). It may one day join the freely available, brain-protecting metal, lithium as the method of choice for treating people with a mental imbalance.
This brain modulation technology could very specifically interact with our billions of neurons that have an infinite number of distinct characteristics and wiring patterns.
These neurons exchange precisely tuned millisecond scale electric signals or one of their different biochemical messengers with each other.
Researchers at MIT’s Neural Circuit Genetics noticed that memories in dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease, are NOT lost. They were retrieved in mice, using blue light that made nerve cells grow new synapses.
All aspects of our personas, capabilities, memories, and emotions arise from electrical and biochemical events within particular circuits of neurons in particular temporal settings.
Because the computational capabilities of our cortical circuits are infinitely complex, neuroscientists will always lack a complete grasp of the totality of the brain’s activities.
Should the altering of neural pathways then be done through technological means or by ourselves, if possible?
What if, we can weaken or strengthen those connections by focusing the energy of our attention on the physical sensation that is associated with each of them?
