Researchers from Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Lecce, Italy and Harvard Medical School created a probe designed for optogenetic applications.
Optogenetics is a recently developed technique that allows scientists to selectively activate neurons within the brain, and this technology may one day be used as a therapeutic tool to treat a variety of neurological conditions. One current limitation of optogenetics is that illuminating different regions of the brain in a controlled fashion requires moving the fiber optic light source, but in practice this is nearly impossible.
