Harvard researcher records neural activity ‘live’
Red and blue lights flash, and a machine whirs like a distant swarm of bees. In a cubicle-sized room, Yoav Adam captures something no one has ever seen before: neurons flashing in real time, in a walking, living creature. For decades scientists have been searching for a way to watch a live broadcast of the brain. Though neurons send and receive massive amounts of information (Toe itches! Fire hot! Garbage smells!) at speeds of up to 270 miles an hour, the brain’s electricity is invisible. “You can’t see the electricity flowing through the neurons any more than you can see the electricity in a telephone wire,” said Adam Cohen, professor of chemistry and chemical biology and of physics at Harvard. So, to observe how neurons turn information (toe itches) into thoughts (“itching powder”), behaviors (scratching), and emotions (annoyance), we need to change the way we see. In a new study published in Nature,...