Recently released in the September 2012 edition of Discover magazine, a study at Stanford University has been able to make headway in research regarding the usage of optogenetics. This new branch of science is finding ways to use light to control the function of cells in the brain.

Karl Deisseroth, a researcher at Stanford, is using light to influence certain light sensing microbes and proteins implanted in mice’s brains to trigger specific neurological signals. A neuron, when in contact with light, is triggered by an electrical impulse (medGadget). When the neuron is triggered, the scientists are able to manually control the neurons’ effect.The light is emitted in various wave lengths through the use of optical fibers.

Although scientists have harbored some information regarding the chemical balances in the brain leading to depression and similar mental conditions, there has been no exact correlation between specific networks of neurons and the networks’ effect. By isolating specific neurons using optogentics, Deisseroth will be able to conclude the exact effects of certain neurological networks in humans.

Each network has specific functions and behaviors it controls. If Deisseroth is able to conclude which behaviors are coded by which networks, then drugs and treatment plans can be centered around that specific network. Currently, drugs administered for depression and similar conditions have vast side effects due to their inability to target one specific neural pathway.  (National Institute of Health).

Deisseroth continues his exploration on mice. An example of his work includes the effect of inducing light to stimulate nerve cell projections in a mouse’s amygdala. Prior research at Stanford showed evidence that there is a direct link between the amygdala located in the brain and anxiety disorder in human patients. Thus, scientists believe the amygdala in the brain is responsible for anxiety.

When Deisseroth and his team of scientists selectively stimulated this region in the brain, an emerging behavior was found in mice. Usually, mice are circumspect of open spaces. Scientists believe this anxiety stems from the amygdala. Nevertheless, after the nerve cell projections were stimulated, the mice began to wander freely around their environment which is typically unusual. By controlling the mice’s anxiety through stimulation, Diesseroth and his team were able to decrease the mice’s overall anxiety.

The resulting implications of this research are extremely pragmatic given that it has the potential of curing psychiatric patients of various mental states and also helping to prototype more effective drugs for mental illnesses. The applications of this study become even more branched because of its potential to correlate specific neural networks to each networks’ effects.