© David Scharf/Corbis
Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley combined cutting-edge techniques to develop a tool which can zoom in on a patch of brain cells (pictured) and alter their activity using laser light.
In a breakthrough that wouldn't look out of place in a science fiction film, researchers said they have been able to control the minds of living animals by tweaking the activity of their brain cells.
Using a specialised microscope to tweak activity of brain circuits, they were able to control the behaviour of mice, leading to hopes that we could one day selectively stimulate cells in the brain, like hitting keys on a piano.
While mind control may seem like the stuff of dystopian sci-fi nightmares, the team said the findings could provide insight how the different regions of the brain communicate with one another and even shed new light on brain disorders.
The brain is an incredibly complex organ, made up of interconnected clusters of cells which form neural circuits for different functions.
Cells within circuits may fire in response to a given task, but deciphering which combination of on-off signals within the circuits achieves the desired effect has remained unclear.
In experiments with mice, a team at the University of California, Berkeley, combined cutting edge neurobiology techniques to develop a microscope
which is able to zoom in on a relatively small patch of thousands of brain cells and alter their activity using laser light. By targeting an area of just a few thousand cells with the tool, they were able to change the electrical signals passed between them, so altering the activity of the animal's brain circuitry.
Comment: Wireless mind control?: New technique allows direct stimulation of neurons