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

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


Comments

25 Responses to “Controlling the Brain with Light (Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University)”

  1. DanJC989 on October 7th, 2009 7:07 am

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

  2. MaxwellSDSU on October 19th, 2009 7:27 pm

    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.

  3. seanotube85 on October 23rd, 2009 11:25 pm

    Very interesting stuff!

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

  4. NexusARC on November 25th, 2009 1:24 am

    I need help.

  5. christielynn04 on December 10th, 2009 12:21 am

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

  6. djtoosh on December 12th, 2009 6:49 pm

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

  7. powerone1 on January 10th, 2010 7:49 pm

    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.

  8. joeinfinitus on January 11th, 2010 2:54 am

    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?

  9. vaginitischlamydia on January 12th, 2010 1:03 pm

    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.

  10. bboymarcel on January 27th, 2010 6:51 am

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

  11. bboymarcel on January 27th, 2010 6:52 am

    be aware of it…!

  12. skb0rzn on January 28th, 2010 4:21 pm

    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.

  13. alleyghost on January 28th, 2010 5:06 pm

    The future of ”education”?

  14. VogelsongProductions on February 3rd, 2010 9:31 pm

    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.

  15. xavieramont on February 6th, 2010 5:00 pm

    can’t wait to get my exocortical implants

  16. Paddy142 on February 7th, 2010 7:09 am

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

  17. sarbruis on February 17th, 2010 10:10 pm

    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.

  18. CuervoBlack06 on March 23rd, 2010 12:32 am

    “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?

  19. UCreateChange on April 7th, 2010 12:09 am

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

  20. hanalei169 on April 28th, 2010 10:41 pm

    this is scary as hell!!!

  21. MikeM8891 on May 3rd, 2010 11:32 am

    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.

  22. TheNataliaRR on May 16th, 2010 8:34 am

    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.

  23. TheNataliaRR on June 1st, 2010 2:37 pm

    They dont understand TIME and with LIE you cant fly.

  24. jobirgheidi on June 9th, 2010 9:36 pm

    Very interesting and so very well presented. Thank you.

  25. returnoftheramble3 on August 7th, 2010 3:38 pm

    you have to learn things and force yourself to learn random things. We’re all reactions to our 4s. Please don’t believe in the ‘switch.’ Um, no. Soup of fucking. Yeah, thoughts are scary because the brain is a tangled metaphor. The word banana has a thousand meanings. If you’re brain separated you from you, you would understand :(

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