Researchers Receive $800,000 Grant to Study Brain Connections

Colorado researchers recently won an $800,000 grant that will allow them to try and reconnect neural communication between parts of the brain where it has been severed.

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According to an article by Medical News , the researchers are from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the University of Colorado Boulder. The research could help those suffering from brain injury , stroke, Parkinson’s disease and other neurological problems.

“The team of neuroscientists and engineers will use a special lightweight microscope, which they designed, to peer into and control the living brain of a mouse as they try to reconnect parts of the brain that no longer communicate with each other,” the article reads. “The miniature microscope, using a unique electrowetting lens, is mounted on the head of a mouse and with its high-powered, fiber-optic light can actually view and control neural activity as it happens.”

According to grant co-investigators Juliet Gopinath and Victor Bright, both from CU Boulder, it’s the adaptive optical devices that are included in a miniature microscope that are the game changer in the experiment. Those devices enable a miniature 3D image without mechanically moving parts.

According to Gopinath and Bright, the electrowetting lens is low power, compact and has good optical quality, which makes it ideal for this kind of research. The liquid lens can also change shape when voltage is applied.

“The team will use an optic fiber to disrupt the signals between the olfactory bulb of a mouse, which receives information on odors, and the olfactory cortex, the part of the brain that allows it to smell. In essence, they will shut down its ability to smell and then try to restore it by activating the olfactory cortex using the miniature microscope,” the article reads. “The mouse will be awake and behaving normally throughout this while the team views and controls what is happening in the brain with the electrowetting fiber-coupled microscope. They can stimulate the animal’s brain activity using powerful laser light that flows through the microscope’s fiber-optic bundle.”

With certain brain injuries or diseases, sometimes one part of the brain stops communicating with another part of the brain. For instance, if someone has a stroke, sometimes they may not be able to speak. Once connections between brain areas are lost, it is difficult to get them communicating again.

“If researchers are successful reestablishing brain connections in a mouse, they may be able do the same in humans with brain injury or disease,” the article reads. “If this experiment is successful … this microscope could eventually be modified to activate neurons in the visual cortex based on the visual input. In other words, creating a bridge between two parts of the brain where communication has stopped.”