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An optogenetics technique has been used to activate mouse neurons associated with predatory behavior:
With a flash of light, researchers have induced mice to pounce on anything in their line of sight. Researchers from Yale University and the University of São Paulo isolated the regions of the mouse brain that control both hunting and biting, and say they can activate the neurons involved on command. The research should help illuminate another small part of the neural pathways that connect the outside world to our internal computations.
In this case, the researchers were interested in the link between an outside stimulus — like seeing a delicious cricket — and an action, such as pouncing on said cricket. Their research [open, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.12.027] [DX], published Thursday in Cell, looks at the second part of that question. The researchers used a technique called optogenetics to empirically test the findings of a previous paper that described mouse brain regions involved in predatory behavior. They implanted genetic material from light-sensitive algae into neurons that control hunting and biting, and used flashes of laser light to stimulate them.
The results were convincing: When target regions were activated, the mice pounced without a second thought, following their predatory instincts. When the laser turned off, the mice returned to normal behavior. And the mice didn't limit their attacks to prey: When the kill switch was activated, they attacked sticks and bottle caps as well.
Also at NPR, Science Magazine, and The Guardian.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @08:46AM
sticks and bottle caps are really suspicious objects.
there I am, inside my nice clean sterile cage, far away from any forest, and I see a stick!
wouldn't you pounce on it?!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @08:48AM
River Tam was brainwashed to believe a gun was a stick.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @08:47AM
Sweet, any political dissidents can be turned to terrorism now, completely legitimately too, just look at how violent and dangerous they are.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday January 13 2017, @06:57PM
That's odd, because people wearing helmets tend to shoot more at people protecting their amygdalas from the light by wearing hoodies, turbans and burkas...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @09:34AM
I keep watching the first video and thinking it looks like someone is pulling on the cables...
http://www.cell.com/cms/attachment/2079779361/2071387255/mmc2.mp4 [cell.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @09:47AM
Satirized.
http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-pleasure-button [smbc-comics.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @03:04PM
I mean literally, it looks like a light flashes and someone pulls on a cable hooked up to mouse's skull to pull it around the cage. Some of the other videos make it appear that the mouse is about to pounce, then the light turns on. Maybe it is some kind of optical illusion, but if these are the most convincing videos they could get, I am concerned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @09:44AM
my older kid did that without any laser between 6 and 18 months.
I guess humans have evolved an embedded laser or somethign.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @12:10PM
uh oh I think I laser-pranked at the wrong address.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Friday January 13 2017, @11:52AM
The infection is spread by some luminescent bacteria getting by accident to this area of the brain of the first person. The infected will bite the brains of anyone nearby, infecting the same region of the brain on their victims. Bacteria evolved (due to natural selection) to cause victims to bite exactly into the right area of the brain of their victims. Amazon was the first to foresee [theguardian.com] this development...
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 13 2017, @01:13PM
I see what you did there.
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Friday January 13 2017, @07:50PM
...and if you shine one in my face, you better be a piggie, or i am slapping it out of your hand...
seriously, don't do that...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by captain_nifty on Friday January 13 2017, @08:28PM
The method they used involved genetically engineering the mice so that the neurons in their brains are able to be stimulated directly with light, this is not something that any non-modified organism will do. If they shine a light in your brain (or the brain of any non-modified animal) there will be no effect.
This type of thing has come up in several similar poorly reported articles on medical research.
Flip of the switch sounds great for click bait, but it is a lot more involved than that, and the method isn't generally applicable in non-engineered organisms. What it does show is that over-stimulating this area of the brain can cause these types of behaviors, indicating that this part of the brain has something to do with aggression.
So no scientists didn't learn to make zombies, they just have a better idea of which part of the mouse brain controls aggression.