Controlling the Brain with Light (Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University)

Posted: May 20th, 2010 | Author: admin | Filed under: light therapy for depression | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 25 Comments »

Karl Deisseroth is pioneering bold new treatments for depression and other psychiatric diseases. By sending pulses of light into the brain, Deisseroth can control neural activity with remarkable precision. In this short talk, Deisseroth gives an thoughtful and awe-inspiring overview of his Stanford University lab’s groundbreaking research in “optogenetics”. Prof. Karl Deisseroth’s website: www.stanford.edu Stanford University: www.stanford.edu Stanford University Channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com

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25 Comments on “Controlling the Brain with Light (Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University)”

  1. 1 RamzGT said at 1:06 am on September 24th, 2009:

    excellent question I’ve pondered many times as well!

  2. 2 lightspreader said at 3:44 am on September 30th, 2009:

    poor little mouse

  3. 3 DanJC989 said at 8:07 pm on October 7th, 2009:

    Hahaha maybe if they give the implants wifi. Not sure that hackers are going to be a huge problem.

  4. 4 MaxwellSDSU said at 8:27 am on October 20th, 2009:

    Very interesting research. Im curious how they managed to splice a gene into a neuron thats in the hypothalamusif thats in fact what they did.

    The link to his labs webpage (wherein theres a list of his recent publications) is in the side-bar. Some of the journals he publishes in requires a subscription, but anyone with access to a university computer should be able to look most of them up for free.

  5. 5 seanotube85 said at 12:25 pm on October 24th, 2009:

    Very interesting stuff!

    I wonder if you could make some really effective anti-psychotic medication from this sort of research too.

  6. 6 NexusARC said at 2:24 pm on November 25th, 2009:

    I need help.

  7. 7 christielynn04 said at 1:21 pm on December 10th, 2009:

    Cool! Can this help with physical chronic pain too??

  8. 8 djtoosh said at 7:49 am on December 13th, 2009:

    waaaay too few bioengineers do any work in cognition. kudos to karl disseroth, he’s amazing

  9. 9 powerone1 said at 8:49 am on January 11th, 2010:

    joeinfinitus…I find your post interesting, because you are probably talking drugs that can cause all kinds of side effects, yet you want this technology to 100% safe and effective before you would use it.

  10. 10 joeinfinitus said at 3:54 pm on January 11th, 2010:

    I can see where you are coming from on this. And yes, I would want it to be 100% safe before I would be ready to use it. That would be the sensible approach. Of course being on drugs that have side effects and work, are better than suffering in the first place. But assuming this form of treatment could be made 100% safe, wouldn’t that be the better option?

  11. 11 vaginitischlamydia said at 2:03 am on January 13th, 2010:

    Excellent video and an amazing technique.

    Although optogenetics could serve as a possible treatment option, it seems the potential for exploratory analysis of the brain is even more great. Imagine the potential to invoke neuronal change with such specificity – target only dopaminergic neurons in the basal ganglia, etc., etc. Great work.

  12. 12 bboymarcel said at 7:51 pm on January 27th, 2010:

    Karl Deisseroth…this doctor should be crossed up and judged by god….!
    psychiatrists are the worst psycho criminals in the world…!

  13. 13 bboymarcel said at 7:52 pm on January 27th, 2010:

    be aware of it…!

  14. 14 skb0rzn said at 5:21 am on January 29th, 2010:

    What if its used right now through our TV’s to control us as slaves. I mean really, we know we are beign screwed and no one is standing up, we are being driven to death and no one is burning down wall st.?? We are being controled somehow. Maybe this is how.

  15. 15 alleyghost said at 6:06 am on January 29th, 2010:

    The future of ”education”?

  16. 16 VogelsongProductions said at 10:31 am on February 4th, 2010:

    His initial goal I agree with, treating depression, but it does have great ethical issues. It is a newly discovered power which can be used for the well-being of others or to be taken advantage of. Very interesting though.

  17. 17 xavieramont said at 6:00 am on February 7th, 2010:

    can’t wait to get my exocortical implants

  18. 18 Paddy142 said at 8:09 pm on February 7th, 2010:

    Does anybody know how he gets the different photo-sensitive genes into the different neurons?

  19. 19 sarbruis said at 11:10 am on February 18th, 2010:

    They use adeno-associated virus to introduce the genes into the cells (a virus commonly used in gene therapy). Specific promoters are attached to the genes so that they are only expressed in a certain cell type.

  20. 20 CuervoBlack06 said at 1:32 pm on March 23rd, 2010:

    “Nothing in our minds is ever really gone. The operation had covered him over with a veneer of education and culture, but emotionally he was there–watching and waiting.”

    Too soon for a Flowers for Algernon reference?

  21. 21 UCreateChange said at 1:09 pm on April 7th, 2010:

    Amazing idea! I’m putting this video on my blog!

  22. 22 hanalei169 said at 11:41 am on April 29th, 2010:

    this is scary as hell!!!

  23. 23 MikeM8891 said at 12:32 am on May 4th, 2010:

    this is the same way the aliens are controlling me. can you imagine what we are to those rats we do tests on. we are the aliens butt probing them. if only the rats could make their own tin foil hats like i can to protect myself.

  24. 24 TheNataliaRR said at 8:53 pm on May 16th, 2010:

    Stupid jew!

  25. 25 TheNataliaRR said at 9:34 pm on May 16th, 2010:

    Every person can make own invisible quantum machine alive, Otti Dracul will reset your data with new young generation for example and its fashion quantum machine.

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