Miscellaneous

From treating depression and Alzheimer's to decoding how thinking and emotions work, Stanford researchers are starting to "crack the code" for how the nervous system creates our mental lives.

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(04:50) This animation illustrates optogenetics -- a radical new technology for controlling brain activity with light. Ed Boyden, the co-inventor of this technology, is a professor at the MIT Media Lab and at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, where he continues to develop new technologies for controlling brain activity.

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"Optogenetics: Controlling the Brain with Light" Capitol Hill Briefing on Tuesday, June 9, 2015 in Washington, D.C.

Highlighted as one of the “big ideas” of the past decade by the journal Science, optogenetics involves the use of light to control neurons, and it has opened up a realm of possibilities for better understanding the brain.

Speakers:

Rep. Chaka Fattah (opening remarks)

Edward Boyden, Ph.D., leads the MIT Media Lab's Synthetic Neurobiology research group

Brian Y. Chow, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania

Dayu Lin, Ph.D., leads her lab within the Smilow Neuroscience Program and the Dept. of Psychiatry at New York University

Neuroscience briefings are hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in conjunction with Rep. Chaka Fattah, and through the support of the Dana Foundation.

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