Lasers turn mice into lethal hunters

Moderator Posts : 7124 Join date : 2013-04-30

Quote :: One moment, a mouse nonchalantly shares a cage with a cricket; the next, the rodent leaps on the insect and rips its head off—all because a scientist flipped a switch. For the first time, researchers have hacked into the part of the brain that makes animals hunt, using lasers to target specific neurons. What’s more, they’ve found this hunting center in a surprising place: the region of the brain responsible for fear.

Quote :: Two pathways work in tandem to execute a hunt, the team found. One controls prey pursuit (PAG), and the other controls bite accuracy (PCRt). Targeting PAG with the laser made the mouse move faster or slower, and targeting PCRt made its bite weaker or stronger. When the scientists stimulated both at the same time, the mouse stopped in its tracks and hunted down almost anything it could find—crickets, woodchips, even bottle caps—and bit into it, the team reports today in Cell. “The central amygdala seems to be a center for organizing motor behavior … it has not been conceptualized this way before,” De Araujo says.
Still, activating PAG and PCRt doesn’t turn mice into unchecked killers. The rodents only went after small objects, not other mice. This suggests that other parts of the brain may be keeping the amygdala in check, De Araujo says.

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