Scientists mind control flies with laser

While Fly Mind-Altering Device (FlyMAD) may sound like a controlled substance, it’s actually a technique that uses heat to induce the neurons responsible for a specific fly behavior, and in this case, mating. Neuroscientist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Barry Dickson, used the technique to compel a fly to copulate with a ball of wax in an effort to study how neural circuits control complex behavior such as courtship.

Optogenetics
Neural influence was previously accomplished in mice using an optogenetics technique, which embeds a fiber-optic cable inside a mouse’s brain to trigger neurons using light, but is impossible to duplicate in flies given their small size. By contrast, FlyMAD relies on an added heat-activated protein called TRPA1, which stimulates the insect’s decision-making center when heat is added via infrared laser.

Controlling muscular coordination
FlyMAD takes the process one step further and automates it using a video camera to track the fly’s movement inside a box. Whenever Dickson’s team of researchers beam the fly with an infrared laser, the TRPA1 responsible for courtship is activated, and the flies reliably proceed with their mating dance. An even greater result emerged once the laser was shut off: the flies continued in their programmed behavior for an additional 15 minutes, indicating that the heat trigger a lasting mental state.

Furthermore, the researchers were able to make the TRPA1 infused flies continue to walk backwards by for as long as the laser shone, signifying that muscular control is also a possibility through heat manipulation.

Inception
A similar form of mind-control was exerted by researcher Gero Miesenböck of the University of Oxford, UK, whose team injected flies’ brains with a light-activated chemical that binds to the dopamine-making neurons. Unlike humans and other mammals, dopamine causes fear in flies, so whenever Miesenböck’s flies moved through a stream of harmless gas, he blasted them with a laser to activate neurons that make dopamine and create false memories of fear. But unlike the TRPA1 heat-activated neurons, Miesenböck’s technique did not create a lasting impression.

As an added benefit of TRPA1, the switch can be combined with other switches, such the light-activated protein called channelrhodopsin that respond to long wavelengths of red light passing completely through the fly’s body. By alternating the infrared and red light sources, scientists can observe which circuit controls the other or activate mutually exclusive behaviors.

More mind control.
Another neural scientist, this one from the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, Benjamin White, believes that timed control initiated by the FlyMAD will help scientists decode the neural impulses responsible for a fly’s snap decisions, such as where to land or lay eggs, ultimately in an effort to understand neural circuitry.

Story via Nature