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Virus brain-mapping technique uncovers circuits involved in Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease
Gladstone Institutes and Salk Institute researchers have assembled brain-wide maps of neurons that connect with the basal ganglia, a region of the brain involved in movement and decision-making.
Developing a better understanding of this region is important as it could inform research into disorders causing basal ganglia dysfunction, including Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease.
Team leaders Gladstone Investigator Anatol Kreitzer, PhD, and Salk Investigator Edward Callaway, PhD combined mouse models with a sophisticated tracing technique known as the monosynaptic rabies virus system.
“Taming and harnessing the rabies virus — as pioneered by Callaway — is ingenious in the exquisite precision that it offers compared with previous methods, which were messier with a much lower resolution,” explained Kreitzer, who is also an associate professor of neurology and physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, with which Gladstone is affiliated.
“We took the approach one step further by activating the tracer genetically, which ensures that it is only turned on in specific neurons in the basal ganglia. This is a huge leap forward technologically, as we can be sure that we’re following only the networks that connect to particular kinds of cells in the basal ganglia.”
At Gladstone, Kreitzer focuses his research on the role of the basal ganglia in Parkinson’s and other neurological disorders. Last year, he and his team published research that revealed clues to the relationship between two types of neurons found in the region — and how they guide both movement and decision-making.
These two types, called direct-pathway medium spiny neurons (dMSNs) and indirect-pathway medium spiny neurons (iMSNs), act as opposing forces. dMSNs initiate movement, like the gas pedal, and iMSNs inhibit movement, like the brake.
The latest research from the Kreitzer lab further found that these two types are also involved in decision-making behavior, and that a dysfunction of dMSNs or iMSNs is associated with addictive or depressive behaviors, respectively. These findings were important because they provided a link between the physical neuronal degeneration seen in movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s, and some of the disease’s behavioral aspects. But this study still left many questions unanswered, such as how other brain regions influenced the function of these two neuron types.
Tracing brain pathways
The monosynaptic rabies virus system uses a modified version of the rabies virus to “infect” a brain region, which in turn targets neurons that are connected to it. When the system was applied in genetic mouse models, the team could see specifically how sensory, motor, and reward structures in the brain connected to MSNs in the basal ganglia. And what they found was surprising.
“We noticed that some regions showed a preference for transmitting to dMSNs versus iMSNs, and vice versa,” said Kreitzer. “For example, neurons residing in the brain’s motor cortex tended to favor iMSNs, while neurons in the sensory and limbic systems preferred dMSNs. This fine-scale organization, which would have been virtually impossible to observe using traditional techniques, allows us to predict the distinct roles of these two neuronal types.”
“These initial results should be treated as a resource not only for decoding how this network guides the vast array of very distinct brain functions, but also how dysfunctions in different parts of this network can lead to different neurological conditions,” said Callaway. “If we can use the rabies virus system to pinpoint distinct network disruptions in distinct types of disease, we could significantly improve our understanding of these diseases’ underlying molecular mechanisms — and get even closer to developing solutions for them.”
This research was supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
Source: http://www.kurzweilai.net/high-resolution-mapping-technique-uncovers-underlying-circuit-architecture-of-the-brain
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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