Ilka Diester (Optical Neuroengineering Lab and Neural Prosthetics Systems Lab, School of Medicine, Stanford University)

The Bernstein Center Freiburg
&
BrainLinks - BrainTools Initiative

Bernstein Seminar

Ilka Diester

Optical Neuroengineering Lab and Neural Prosthetics Systems Lab
School of Medicine
Stanford University, CA, USA

 

Optogenetics for mapping and mending neural circuits: Towards bidirectional neural prostheses

Abstract:
Elucidating how information flowing into the brain is processed, and then sent out of the brain, is of both scientific interest and medical value. While considerable characterization of neuronal populations based on their electrophysiological properties is possible, new optogenetic tools enable targeting of neurons based on their molecular properties and projection patterns with millisecond precision. This is of high strategic value for a more comprehensive characterization of neuronal circuits. I will show how these tools can be applied in rodents and non-human primates with a focus on somatosensory-motor areas. This across-species approach will facilitate a translation of research to medical applications, e.g., for the development of treatments for motor disorders like Parkinson's disease and for reestablishing lost motor control in the context of prosthetic limbs. > The combination of somatosensory input through optogenetic stimulations and motor read-out through electrical recordings has the potential to dramatically improve our knowledge of somatosensory-motor integration and help building neural bidirectional prostheses, by enabling patients with neurally controlled prosthetic arms to also feel what they grasp.

Host: Ulrich Egert