A SINGLE brain cell can control a rat鈥檚 whiskers. Using precision electrodes, European researchers have stimulated individual neurons in a rat鈥檚 motor cortex, triggering long sequences of whisker movements.
Before this, scientists studying how neurons control whiskers had only managed to stimulate groups of neurons. To isolate the influence of a single neuron, Michael Brecht of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany, and his team delivered 5 nanoamperes of current into large individual cortical neurons in anaesthetised rats. Within seconds, a set of whiskers moved back-and-forth in each rat and the movement lasted several seconds (Nature, vol 427, p 704).