5 ms·

"First, they infected the mice with a virus that made the neurons in their brains sensitive to blue light." They can do this? This is amazing to me! It also m

by ohyes 10y ago

"First, they infected the mice with a virus that made the neurons in their brains sensitive to blue light." They can do this? This is amazing to me! It also makes me a little afraid that I'll get infected by a virus and mind controlled.

FreeFull 10y ago
You'd still need for someone to cut your skull open to shine the blue light in. At that point, you've got problems either way.
- rudolf0 10y ago
  "First, they infected the mice with a virus that made their amygdala sensitive to augmented optic nerve activity in response to specific pixel patterns."
  - dgfgfdagasdfgfa 10y ago
    This is a rudimentary form of the plot of Serenity (the Firefly movie), if I'm interpreting that correctly. Kingsmen, too.
  - NoGravitas 10y ago
    Do not look back at the image of the Parrot, shatter goggles or no shatter goggles. http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/blit.htm http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/blit.htm
- ianmcgowan 10y ago
  Not if you can persuade/modify a fungus to do the same thing. This is basically the plot of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_All_the_Gifts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_All_the_Gifts
Karunamon 10y ago
If you want some real nightmare fuel, imagine a fungus that gets into your body, drives you to a high place, destroys your motor control nerves so you're stuck in place, and then fatally bursts out a fruiting body from the back of your head, spreading more spores? Be glad you're not an ant :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis
- ceejayoz 10y ago
  Toxoplasmosis may have similar (if slightly more subtle) effects on humans: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/273/1602/2749 http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/273/1602/2749
- teddyh 10y ago
  “Wanna go to the top of a ten-storey building?” http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/fungus http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/fungus
mattkrause 10y ago
You're safe :-) First, the virus isn't found in the wild--it's been modified to carry the gene coding for a light-sensitive protein (opsin). When the cells are infected, they start producing these proteins themselves. To do this, the virus is typically applied directly to the brain tissue. Light causes these opsins to change shape, which then allows specific types of ions to flow through the cell (typically sodium to excite cells, chloride to suppress them). However, for this to work, the channels need to be illuminated directly, with the correct wavelength of light, so an optical fiber is implanted in or just above the brain. If someone were to do this to you, you would have already had a pair of fairly invasive neurosurgeries, so being mind-controlled is probably the least of your worries! However, this technique only lets you activate all neurons or all neurons of a specific type within the light's path. It would be fairly hard to induce a complex behavior, unless there's a pre-existing circuit for one (as shown here, which is why this paper is so interesting) or they can find an illumination pattern to mimic one.
- koolba 10y ago
  So what prevents a B-movie style plot of attaching these types of proteins to influenza viruses? Is the blood/brain barrier the ultimate savior?
- return0 10y ago
  does the virus have to be injected too, or does it pass the blood-brain barrier?
  - aperrien 10y ago
    I think that the commonly used virus is a variant of rabies, which can definitely cross the blood brain barrier.
    - mattkrause 10y ago
      This paper uses AAV (adeno-associated virus), which is probably the most common viral vector for optogenetics. There are several other options, including lentivirus and--yes, rabies. They all have slightly different properties in terms of their propensity to infect different cell types, payload capacity, and so on. Rabies has the interesting ability to move trans-synaptically. Specifically, it moves "backwards" from a post-synaptic cell into its presynaptic partners. This makes it very useful for studies where you want to label or manipulate connections between areas. On the other hand, this would make it more difficult to study all cells or all cells of a specific type in one area. Incidentally, I'm not sure if rabies crosses the blood-brain barrier per se. It moves up to the brain via peripheral nerves instead of circulating through the blood. In fact, the blood brain barrier may be a problem for rabies because it prevents immune cells from cleaning out the virus inside the central nervous system.
jgalloway___ 10y ago
Viruses are already inserted into your DNA and your physical and emotional behavior is different when exposed to sunlight compared to darkness.
- 1_listerine_pls 10y ago
  Really interesting, source?

by ohyes 10y ago

FreeFull 10y ago

You'd still need for someone to cut your skull open to shine the blue light in. At that point, you've got problems either way.

rudolf0 10y ago
"First, they infected the mice with a virus that made their amygdala sensitive to augmented optic nerve activity in response to specific pixel patterns."
- dgfgfdagasdfgfa 10y ago
  This is a rudimentary form of the plot of Serenity (the Firefly movie), if I'm interpreting that correctly. Kingsmen, too.
- NoGravitas 10y ago
  Do not look back at the image of the Parrot, shatter goggles or no shatter goggles. http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/blit.htm http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/blit.htm
ianmcgowan 10y ago
Not if you can persuade/modify a fungus to do the same thing. This is basically the plot of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_All_the_Gifts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_All_the_Gifts

Karunamon 10y ago

If you want some real nightmare fuel, imagine a fungus that gets into your body, drives you to a high place, destroys your motor control nerves so you're stuck in place, and then fatally bursts out a fruiting body from the back of your head, spreading more spores? Be glad you're not an ant :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis

ceejayoz 10y ago
Toxoplasmosis may have similar (if slightly more subtle) effects on humans: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/273/1602/2749 http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/273/1602/2749
teddyh 10y ago
“Wanna go to the top of a ten-storey building?” http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/fungus http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/fungus

mattkrause 10y ago

You're safe :-) First, the virus isn't found in the wild--it's been modified to carry the gene coding for a light-sensitive protein (opsin). When the cells are infected, they start producing these proteins themselves. To do this, the virus is typically applied directly to the brain tissue. Light causes these opsins to change shape, which then allows specific types of ions to flow through the cell (typically sodium to excite cells, chloride to suppress them). However, for this to work, the channels need to be illuminated directly, with the correct wavelength of light, so an optical fiber is implanted in or just above the brain. If someone were to do this to you, you would have already had a pair of fairly invasive neurosurgeries, so being mind-controlled is probably the least of your worries! However, this technique only lets you activate all neurons or all neurons of a specific type within the light's path. It would be fairly hard to induce a complex behavior, unless there's a pre-existing circuit for one (as shown here, which is why this paper is so interesting) or they can find an illumination pattern to mimic one.

koolba 10y ago
So what prevents a B-movie style plot of attaching these types of proteins to influenza viruses? Is the blood/brain barrier the ultimate savior?
return0 10y ago
does the virus have to be injected too, or does it pass the blood-brain barrier?
- aperrien 10y ago
  I think that the commonly used virus is a variant of rabies, which can definitely cross the blood brain barrier.
  - mattkrause 10y ago
    This paper uses AAV (adeno-associated virus), which is probably the most common viral vector for optogenetics. There are several other options, including lentivirus and--yes, rabies. They all have slightly different properties in terms of their propensity to infect different cell types, payload capacity, and so on. Rabies has the interesting ability to move trans-synaptically. Specifically, it moves "backwards" from a post-synaptic cell into its presynaptic partners. This makes it very useful for studies where you want to label or manipulate connections between areas. On the other hand, this would make it more difficult to study all cells or all cells of a specific type in one area. Incidentally, I'm not sure if rabies crosses the blood-brain barrier per se. It moves up to the brain via peripheral nerves instead of circulating through the blood. In fact, the blood brain barrier may be a problem for rabies because it prevents immune cells from cleaning out the virus inside the central nervous system.

jgalloway___ 10y ago

Viruses are already inserted into your DNA and your physical and emotional behavior is different when exposed to sunlight compared to darkness.

1_listerine_pls 10y ago
Really interesting, source?