Principal Investigator Edward Boyden
Project Website http://syntheticneurobiology.org/projects/display/56/25
The brain is a three-dimensional, densely wired circuit that computes via large sets of widely distributed neurons interacting at fast timescales. Ideally it would be possible to observe the activity of many neurons with as great a degree of precision as possible, so as to understand the neural codes and dynamics that are produced by the circuits of the brain. Our lab and our collaborators are developing a number of innovations to enable such analyses. These tools will hopefully enable pictures of how neurons work together to implement brain computations, and how these computations go awry in brain disorders. Such neural observation strategies may also serve as detailed biomarkers of brain disorders or indicators of potential drug side effects. These technologies may, in conjunction with optogenetics, enable closed-loop neural control technologies, which can introduce information into the brain as a function of brain state ("brain co-processors").