Researchers in the United States have developed a new method for controlling the brain circuits associated with complex animal behaviours, using genetic engineering to create a magnetised protein that activates specific groups of nerve cells from a distance. Understanding how the brain generates behaviour is one of the ultimate goals of neuroscience – and one of its most difficult questions. In... 

A new study raises hopes for patients with severe amnesia. Memories lost as a result of amnesia can be retrieved by activating certain brain cells with light, a new study says. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have managed to recover lost memories of a group of laboratory mice, hit by amnesia, through using a technology known as optogenetics, or the use of light to prompt...