Spot on for brain research: Controlling nerve cells with light
Wednesday, November 4, 2015 - 13:00
in Biology & Nature
Gero Miesenböck was the first to insert a light-controlled on/off switch into brain cells. His pioneering method allows scientists to switch nerve cells on and off selectively and observe how the behavior of, for example, fruit flies or mice changes as a result. In this way, researchers can learn in a step-by-step process what behavior the studied brain circuits control and what goes awry in disease.