Infectedstyle
I compulsively post from time to time
This is my first post in the science forum 
I've been aching to discuss some things in a scientific fashion on this forum for a while. I thought i'd share something and see what you guys think of it.
I just watched this talk on TED A light switch for neurons - Ed Boyden and it goes into quite some futuristic topics. The main thread in this talk tho is about activating and turning off specific neurons with some kind of spectacular application of biotechnology. The way they must have looked at working mechanisms in nature and figured out a way to use it for understanding the brain is mind-blowing and absolutely genius! Inspiring to say the least
The potential for applying this technology to humans in order to activate/disable neurons is mentioned in this talk and is an option according to the narrative.
A scary but intriguing thought popped into my head.. what if we could do experiments in humans and play around with activating/deactivating the 5ht2a receptor in a human brain?
I guess the thought of being a volunteer myself for these sorts of experiments is what scared me about it.. Ethical discussion aside, the implications of these experiments are huge! Being able to activate neurons at will and deactivating them , we could experiment very precisely what each are neuron's functions are.. I'm anxious to see where all of this is headed. Perhaps maybe the brain isn't that mysterious of an organ anymore.
I've been aching to discuss some things in a scientific fashion on this forum for a while. I thought i'd share something and see what you guys think of it.I just watched this talk on TED A light switch for neurons - Ed Boyden and it goes into quite some futuristic topics. The main thread in this talk tho is about activating and turning off specific neurons with some kind of spectacular application of biotechnology. The way they must have looked at working mechanisms in nature and figured out a way to use it for understanding the brain is mind-blowing and absolutely genius! Inspiring to say the least
The potential for applying this technology to humans in order to activate/disable neurons is mentioned in this talk and is an option according to the narrative.
A scary but intriguing thought popped into my head.. what if we could do experiments in humans and play around with activating/deactivating the 5ht2a receptor in a human brain?
I guess the thought of being a volunteer myself for these sorts of experiments is what scared me about it.. Ethical discussion aside, the implications of these experiments are huge! Being able to activate neurons at will and deactivating them , we could experiment very precisely what each are neuron's functions are.. I'm anxious to see where all of this is headed. Perhaps maybe the brain isn't that mysterious of an organ anymore.