Optogenetics researcher develops wireless brain stimulator
(Medical Xpress) -- In a major step forward in optogenetics, MIT researcher Christian Wentz has developed a sort of wireless hat that can be used to transmit light to photo sensitized cells in the brain, thus stimulating them to fire when struck by light, or to cease firing, whichever has been programmed for. Previously such optical therapies were done by connecting a light source to a cable or tether to deliver the power for the light sources (lasers or LEDs); now as described in a paper he and his colleagues have published in the Journal of Neural Engineering, a transmitter can be used to create a magnetic field, which in turn is converted to electricity in a tiny hat placed atop a mouses head, that is then used to power the implanted light sources.