MIT Researchers Announce Brain Silencing Technique

It's not the Vulcan mind meld from Star Trek, but it's a fascinating technology.

"Brain silencing" is a new technology that allows brain researchers to turn off neurons using light. The process requires genetic manipulation of the neurons, after which engineers can effectively silence neurons with light.

The field is neuroscience, and neuroengineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have succeeded in turning off neurons in mice and then reactivating them. They hope to create techniques for treating brain disorders such as epilepsy and Parkinson's disease where traditional drug therapies have failed. Professor Ed Boyden, a Career Development Professor in the Media Lab and a member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, leads a team of researchers. Their research is published in the January 7 issue of Nature.

Boyden explains his work: "We hope to enable a broad platform of molecular tools for controlling brain activity, thus enabling new general therapeutic tools, and new ways of studying brain function."

In mice tests, Boyden's team uses two genes found in natural organisms as neuron silencers. By using these two genes to genetically manipulate the neurons, researchers can control them by shining light on them. The light activates manipulated protein in each neuron, which lowers the voltage in the neuron and prevents it from activating. The neuron is silenced.

Boyden and his researchers used laser light and optical fibers to shine light on the neurons. Electrodes were used to measure the neural response.

By shutting down neurons, Boyden and his team hope to develop treatments to relieve chronic pain and possibly treat other brain injuries. Traditionally, stimulating neuron activity - as opposed to silencing neurons - was the common approach.

Boyden developed the first "optogenetic" method in conjunction with Stanford University and the Max Planck Institute. It allows specific neurons in the brain to be deactivated with light.

As with any technology, this one had good and bad uses. A rocket can be used to go to the moon peacefully, or it can be used to blow up things in an aggressive act. Will the new technology be used by others to develop treatments for brain disorders or Orwellian mind control? That will only be known with time.