Seminar on
Modern Optics and Spectroscopy


Edward Boyden, MIT

Optical control of normal and pathological neuronal circuit dynamics

March 18, 2008

12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m. Grier Room 34-401


Abstract:

Our lab has developed methods for turning on and off specific kinds of neuron
in the brain, using pulses of blue and yellow light.  We are now exploring the use
of this technology for reprogramming specific cells in the brain, to correct
pathological neural activity and to enhance cognition.  We are developing
both safe, effective viral technologies for sensitizing specific neuron classes
to light, as well as optical hardware for reprogramming cells, and we are also
discovering principles of how to use these technologies to reprogram specific
neural circuits.  In this way we hope to open up new understandings of brain
function and also develop radical new circuit-focused therapies for otherwise
intractable disorders.

TUESDAYS, 12:00-1:00, GRIER ROOM (34-401)
Refreshments served following the seminar

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Co-sponsored by the George R. Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory,
the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and
the School of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.