Neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., recently developed a way to turn off abnormally active brain cells using multiple colors of light. This research could prove useful for managing disorders including chronic pain, epilepsy, brain injury and Parkinson's disease.

The brain mapping in this image represents collaboration between neuroscientists and experts in math, statistics, computer science, bioinformatics, imaging and nanotechnology.

Credit: Arthur Toga, Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Department of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine

Associate member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT Edward Boyden describes how shutting off neurons in the brain could benefit research into epilepsy and Parkinson's disease.

Credit: MIT/National Science Foundation

Edward Boyden discusses the search for safe, light-reactive organisms and how these electricity producers can be used to shut down brain cells.

Credit: MIT/National Science Foundation

Edward Boyden discusses two molecules nicknamed Arch and Mac that are basically light-activated proteins used to shut down brain cells.

Credit: MIT/National Science Foundation

Edward Boyden describes how a harmless virus helps researchers bestow upon neurons the same photosynthetic properties of the Arch and Mac proteins with which they are injected.

Credit: MIT/National Science Foundation

Boyden discusses the next phase of the research.

Credit: MIT/National Science Foundation

To test whether neurons could be turned off using specific proteins, MIT researchers inserted "Arch" and "Mac" genes into viruses. The viruses then inserted their genetic cargo into mouse neurons. Optical fibers attached to lasers flashed light onto the neurons, and electrodes measured the resulting neural activity. Here, a mouse neuron takes on the characteristics of an Arch gene.

Credit: Image courtesy Brian Chow, Xue Han, and Ed Boyden