Optical Technologies Expand Vistas Into the Brain
The brain, like an ocean, guards mysteries of the deep. Many of the structures and activities that make us what we are, mentally and emotionally, reside or occur far from the surface. Until now, researchers have observed deep-brain processes in living subjects only indirectly, through nuclear imaging or magnetic resonance techniques. Soon, however, if new technologies being developed by NIDA-funded scientists bear out their promise, investigators will have the means to view structures anywhere inside the organ and even activate or deactivate specific brain circuits at will. The technologies