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“The new devices rely on optogenetics, a technique in which researchers use bursts of light to activate or suppress the brain nerve cells, or neurons, often usi
by fiftyfifty 5y ago
“The new devices rely on optogenetics, a technique in which researchers use bursts of light to activate or suppress the brain nerve cells, or neurons, often using tailored viruses to genetically modify cells so they respond to illumination (SN: 1/15/10).“ That seems like a really important piece of information: they controlled genetically modified mice with light, not just any old mice.
- superkuh 5y agoAdditionally, all the lay press write-ups hype the entrained synchrony as being what makes the mice get along better. But what they fail to emphasize is that the part of the brain they are optogenetically stimulating is the final part of the reward pathway associated with incentive salience. The shared relative (re: each mouse) frequency they stimulate that part of the reward pathway with is much less important than it being part of the reward pathway.
- briefcomment 5y agoI feel like the interesting part of the synchrony is that the mice will cooperate with the other mice that they are in sync with. How does that happen? > "the rodents groomed and sniffed companions with whom their neurons were in sync more often than ones with whom they were out of sync"
- superkuh 5y agoIf some sets of the rodents is not as the same frequency as the another set then it's likely that only one of the frequencies of stimulation of the reward pathway were optimal for recruiting the relevant population of neurons for reward expression. They'd feel all nice and not afraid of each other, with an increased incentive salience (including social stimuli). Whereas the group not being stimulated at the optimal frequency for recruitment wouldn't feel nice and be motivated to persue stimuli.
- briefcomment 5y agoSeems plausible