optogenetics

Optogenetics is a biological technique used to characterize and manipulate the activity of neurons or other cell types with light. This is achieved by expression of light-sensitive ion channels, pumps or enzymes in the target brain cells.

On the level of individual cells, light-activated enzymes and transcription factors allow precise control of biochemical signaling pathways. In systems neuroscience, the ability to control the activity of a genetically defined set of neurons has been used to understand their contribution to decision making, learning, fear memory, mating, addiction, feeding, and locomotion. In a medical application of optogenetic technology, vision was partially restored in a blind patient with retinitis pigmentosa.