UC Davis Researchers Temporarily Turn Off Brain Area to Better Understand Function

UC Davis Researchers Temporarily Turn Off Brain Area to Better Understand Function
Capitalizing on experimental genetic techniques, researchers at UC Davis’ California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) have demonstrated that temporarily turning off an area of the brain changes patterns of activity across much of the remaining brain. This suggests that alterations in the functional connectivity of the brain in humans may be used to determine the sites of pathology in complex disorders such as schizophrenia and autism.

Using a technology called Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs), the team led by David Amaral, distinguished professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and spearheaded by graduate student David Grayson, genetically modified the neurons of the amygdala, an area of the brain known to be important for emotions, to produce molecular on-off switches, or receptors, that are triggered by a drug administered to the animal. When the drug is injected, the receptors shut down activity in the amygdala – effectively turning off this brain region.

The team demonstrated that when the amygdala was turned off, patterns of brain activity in other brain regions either decreased or increased. Areas known to be well-connected to amygdala were particularly affected but so were brain regions that have no known connections to the amygdala.

Source & further reading:
http://www.cnprc.ucdavis.edu/uc-davis-researchers-temporarily-turn-off-brain-area-to-better-understand-function/

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