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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Researchers have built neural probes that hold what may be the smallest implantable LEDs ever made [futurity.org].

These new probes can control and record the activity of many individual neurons, measuring how changes in the activity of a single neuron can affect its neighbors.

The team, which has tested the probes in mice, anticipates that experiments using probes based on their design could lead to breakthroughs in understanding and treating neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

“This is a very big step forward,” says Kensall Wise, professor emeritus of the University of Michigan, who was involved with the research. “The fact that you can generate these optical signals on the probe, in a living brain, opens up new doors.”

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