MIT's imaging techniques shed light on brain activity

Researchers at MIT have developed an imaging technique to help study exactly how electrical signals pass through the brain, helping us better understand Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy and other brain disorders. , as well as how thoughts and emotions are formed.

Brain MRI shots provide important insight into how the brain works, but they can only approximate the areas triggered by a certain stimulus. To elucidate how minutiae of communication and collaboration neurons to form thoughts and emotions, we will need image tools with much improved solutions. more.

Today, with the study of 86 billion neurons in the human brain, neuroscientists must deal with studies of simple organisms such as worms and fish larvae (with the number of neurons within hundreds of applications). ), based on slow, bulky approaches such as electrode implantation into brain tissue to detect electrical signals.

However, this may soon change. The team of researchers led by Professor Ed Boyden of MIT has built on previous research to perfect an imaging technique that provides a more complete picture of brain activity.

When exposed to red light, a fluorescent protein is carefully selected to attach to the membrane of the neuron that responds to electrical signals by lighting, revealing the correct nerve pathway.

Boyden and the team developed a sophisticated robot to select proteins among nearly 10 million candidates and 13 mutant points. The robot injects each protein into a mammalian cell, develops cells in experimental plates, and takes a picture of the results, while a software has been selected to display the edema characteristics. It is suitable for experiments, including brightness, location of proteins in cells, and resistance to light bleaching.

Applying protein to zebrafish larvae, nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, as well as mouse brain tissue allows researchers to visualize and measure brain electrical activity in these organisms as it passes through the brain. Furthermore, this technique can be used in tandem with so-called " optical proteins " that can stimulate individual neurons at will.

The researchers showed that they could excite an isolated neuron in this way, and then use fluorescent proteins to follow along the path of the activated neuron.

Next, the researchers will try to fully simulate mouse activity when performing various tasks, with the aim of accurately discovering some neural circuits that produce specific behaviors.

The study is published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.

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