Fruit fly study pushes research toward ‘holy grail for neurotechnologies’

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Brain circuits of fruit flies can be activated in under a second with wireless technology developed by a team led by Rice University neuroengineers.

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In a published demonstration in Nature Materials, researchers from Rice, Duke University, Brown University and Baylor College of Medicine used magnetic signals to activate targeted neurons that controlled the body position of fruit flies moving in an enclosure.

“To study the brain or to treat neurological disorders the scientific community is searching for tools that are both incredibly precise, but also minimally invasive,” said study author Jacob Robinson, an associate professor in electrical and computer engineering at Rice and a member of Rice's Neuroengineering Initiative. “Remote control of select neural circuits with magnetic fields is somewhat of a holy grail for neurotechnologies. Our work takes an important step toward that goal because it increases the speed of remote magnetic control, making it closer to the natural speed of the brain.”

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Robinson said the new technology activates neural circuits about 50 times faster than the best previously demonstrated technology for magnetic stimulation of genetically defined neurons.

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