sorry to highjack your thread, but you seem to have a neuroscience background (which i find pretty interesting). is it currently possible to selectively and reversibly "switch off" specific brain functions like seeing or hearing in lab-animals?

>>7787606
Fairly sure that counts as cruelty.

>>7787606
>>7787615
Not to mention, that would differ in animals, so be more specific.

>>7787615
>>7787618
yes, it would count as cruelty, of course. but i'm just asking if this is generally possible by current means. and to be more specific, is it possibe to temporarily make a mouse go deaf by influencing the brain areas responsible for the hearing-process?

>>7787650
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_brain_stimulation

>>7787606
OP here. To some extent, yes as >>7787655 have linked. In mice and insects like for instance drosophila (fruit fly) optogenetics is widely used, inwhich one can use light to inactivate or active specific neurons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optogenetics). While optogenetic stimulation requires inserting a light into the brain to excite the light-responsive receptors, a more recent approach is the use of ultrasound as a non-invasive technique. However this requires more studies (google sonogenetics).

>>7787665
>sonogenetics
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/15/sonogenetics-allows-brain-cells-to-be-controlled-by-sound-waves
>Dumb mainstream media

>>7787671
Thanks, I don't know what Im looking for myself. Fairly new to the field, and just interested to see what spike data analysis includes basically.

>>7787684

sorry I was ashamed of my post so I deleted it, because I did not read the 'single cell' part

may I ask how you stimulate and record stimulation of the cells?

>>7787721
The stimulation is controlled by a data-acquistion program (spike 2), which result in blowing an odourant toward the animal. The stimulus is thus stored as an event in the recording, and can be compared to the recorded neuronal spike train from the cell to see how the particular odorant alter the activity.