alt Hacker NewsHaven't heard of optogenetics in a while. I could never decide if it was actually useful for either basic science or medicine or a toy.
Looking at the basic science results I could not decide if they were bringing in really novel understanding or basically repeating a lot of the old electrical stimulation results.
I do remember a staggering amount of money was pumped into the field and it was super trendy in the 2010s.
it's a great tool for molecular elucidations. there's still a big gray area as to the interpretation of some results in the context of terms such as "memory" or various feelings, but the optogenetics framework is undoubtedly the most impressive interface to the brain ever created