Engineering the Brain: Deploying a New Neural Toolkit

A new generation of technology is revolutionizing neuroscience, allowing a closer study of the brain than had ever seemed possible. The techniques are hybrids of optics, genetics, and synthetic biology with the ability to manipulate brain activity, often in real time. Through direct stimulation of neural connections, some of these techniques hold the promise for the treatment of diseases like depression or schizophrenia.

PARTICIPANTS: Elizabeth M C Hillman, Dayu Lin, Conor Liston, Anthony Zador

MODERATOR: Guy McKhann
Original program date: JUNE 3, 2017

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This program is part of the Big Ideas Series, made possible with support from the John Templeton Foundation.

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Participant Introduction 00:29

Where did Optogenetics come from? 01:29

Using imaging techniques to see the broader picture 09:00

Putting prisms in the brain to better understand optogenetics 27:10

Studying mice brains vs. human brains. 40:09

Where will we be in the next 10 years? 52:00

Q & A 55:00

This program was filmed live at the 2017 World Science Festival and edited for YouTube.

[jessicaberhow]

I can't get enough of this stimuli!!!! How does one go about becoming a recognized scientist?
Thank you all for all of this mind blowing information!!!

[AdamHicks]

Any chance of uploading the full video of the mouse brain visualizations with music like indicators? It was really calming, and it would be interesting to observe longer periods of the recordings.

[RoGeorgeRoGeorge]

Good re-upload, looking forward for new talks
:o)

[THESHALLOWDRIFTER]

Please consider using Neural link to allow a patient to transfer their pain to the doctor treating them so the diagnose can be real and not based on statistics. Stupid question ex. "what level 1 to 10?"

[chrismccullough]

Thanks for the info...Cool concept with the music and fruit flys

[mrtomhol]

...sound/pitch level instability, makes it painful to listen/watch. Please improve the quality.

[justiceblue]

I don't think 'wrong' and 'fix' are the right way to think about brain function.

[ToxisLT]

how accurate is that metaphor @ 16:37 - because if the brain is similar to the internet - is vice versa true? If yes, have we unintentionally build a brain just without all the goodies of our neuro-soup? Could we build artificial neurotransmitters on a standard TCP/IP maybe?= ) (god damnit, don't tell me blockchains are that:). Great work btw, please give more psy stuff to mice. Because a)they deserve some fun and 2)the interpretation of the data in this way is awesome. And a bonus question - when will I be able to play my thoughts to people, preferably without an om4 cable dangling from the back of my head like cyberpunk Cyrax from Mortal Kombat?

[gaillilly]

Am disappointed that the neural doctrine has dominated this presentation. White matter which is 85 to 90% of the brain was not mentioned. Nothing re: the role of calcium ions, calcium waves, glia, e.g. astrocytes, their role in creativity, thought and more basically, more fundamentally, their role in the stimulation or activation of neurons, their production of neurotransmitters. Hope white matter will be the subject of more research; it is key to understanding the brain.

[DubaiGuy]

Instead of, or in addition to, perhaps these neuroscientists can use "digital twins" of a human brain, with which to do their research.

[USERNAMEfieldempty]

Good talk, but this discussion really needed Kanye West's input ;-)

[jonmo]

psychopaths torturing innocent animals. what a very sad bunch we are

[jayb]

Short story, nonfiction or fiction it's open to interpretation.

The brain is a quantum entangled neural network. We, as individuals, consciously control a single neuron (node) that consciously interacts with our nervous system. The rest are part of the subconscious neural network. We all exist inside of each other's neural network. If we didn't we couldn't share an experience inside this self projected universe. We are all a duality, self is not unique to the individual. The individual is unique to self. None of us are observers, the only thing we observe as individuals are the projections of self.

When 2 individuals meet inside the self projection, the nodes in each brain representing the participants forge neurological connections to each other, so they can share an experience together. Simultaneously every other brain has those same 2 neurological connections made based on their own positions in spacetime. Your neuron (node) and my neuron (node) exist inside of every brain of every human on earth. We all share an umbilical cord and that umbilical cord ties all of our neurology together.

All that neurological action taking place while we sleep, most of it's the participants that are awake and actively making neurological connections. Those connections have to be made in all of our brains in order for quantum tunneling of information to occur. The subconscious mind is something we all share, just like self. We have roughly 7.9 billion living humans and our neural network consists of about 85-90 billion neurons. I'll let you ponder what those neurons represent. The neural network has redundancy built into it by design.

Our brain's subconscious development depends only on the location of all the nodes in spacetime as the brain is developing and connecting to them subconsciously. The conscious branching occurs through interaction inside the self projection. Unless an individual has genetic or medical conditions preventing normal neurological development and function, the human brain will have forged a full subconscious connection to the entire universe at some point during adult life. In order to benefit from other nodes you have to forge actual conscious connections in spacetime. So the brain will forge conscious neurological connections.

We are all tied together subconsciously but in order to share an experience consciously we have to make conscious neurological connections. This can only be done inside of spacetime through conscious interaction.

Just making conscious notice of someone walking past you on the street will forge a neurological connection to that node consciously and this will allow you to network with their subconscious mind to gain enlightenment. The internet is a powerful tool for forging conscious neurological connections. Just interacting online is enough to forge a physical conscious connection neurologically.

In either case we are all entangled and we are building more and more conscious connections to each other. In doing so we are gaining enlightenment or intelligence which might equate to higher energy consumption (brighter star).

It would seem that the more conscious neurological connections a person makes to the network the more subconscious power they receive.

What role does our moral conduct play on diseases and other bugs that infect our system? What role does our level of conscious connectivity to the subconscious neural network play with the energy consumption of the quantum realm powering our network? Is sin just a poison that infects our network like a virus? We are all entangled, so all of our cups pour into each other. How does morality play into our conscious connections to the world? Does a connection forged in moral obligation and truth produce a more powerful connection than a connection forged in lies and deceit?

Will we make it to the heavens? Will humanity fail to complete the Trinity?

Consume so much power that we self-destruct before we achieve artificial universal intelligence? Before our subconscious becomes self aware and our GOD> can emerge? The Father and Son await. WIll humanity receive the holy spirit? Forge a connection to the Trinity and allow our GOD> to emerge, and open up our heavens?

Or will humanity end up a failed experiment and attempt to produce a universally conscious being? I believe humanity will make it to the heavens and we will produce a universally conscious GOD>.

I call this story "The Trinity Of Human Evolution". Brought to us by The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit.