The Role of Emerging Techniques in Understanding Aggression
As shown in Chap. 4 , the neural control of aggression—despite major advancements—is far from being clear. We review here novel technologies that may significantly contribute to the elucidation of unclear issues and may raise understanding to new levels.
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The Role of Emerging Techniques in Understanding Aggression
As shown in Chap. 4, the neural control of aggression—despite major advancements—is far from being clear. We review here novel technologies that may significantly contribute to the elucidation of unclear issues and may raise understanding to new levels. Each section starts with a general description of the methodology and its potentials, which is followed by a brief presentation of studies already employing the technology within aggression research. Each neuroscientific method employed so far advanced knowledge significantly, and their capabilities may not have been exhausted. Qualitatively new information, however, can be obtained by qualitatively new approaches; the ones presented below are likely among those which will shape aggression research in the coming years.
5.1
Optogenetics
Although this technology is relatively new in brain research, its origins can be traced back to the early the 1970s when Oesterhelt and Stoeckenius (1971) showed that bacteria of the genus Halobacterium contain red-colored light-sensitive proteins (opsins) in their cellular membrane. Subsequent studies found that similar proteins are present in the membranes of a series of other microorganisms; in each case, these seemed to be involved in light “recognition,” because they elicited the trafficking of ions across the cell membrane when illuminated (Harz and Hegemann 1991; Matsuno-Yagi and Mukohata 1977; Nagel et al. 2002). The technique was introduced in neuroscience by Boyden et al. (2005) who inserted the gene for the naturally occurring algal protein Channelrhodopsin-2, a rapidly gated lightsensitive cation channel into the genome of mouse neurons, which allowed a reliable, millisecond-time scale control of neuronal spiking by blue light. It was also discovered that halorhodopsin, another microbial opsin, is a light-sensitive chloride channel (Schobert and Lanyi 1982); its introduction into neurons by viral vectors and its stimulation with yellow light silence the neurons reversibly also on a J. Haller, Neurobiological Bases of Abnormal Aggression and Violent Behaviour, DOI 10.1007/978-3-7091-1268-7_5, © Springer-Verlag Wien 2014
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5 The Role of Emerging Techniques in Understanding Aggression
millisecond time scale (Han and Boyden 2007). Importantly, the properties of neurons do not appear to be changed by the mere expression of opsins. The technique shows advantages over electrical stimulation even if employed alone, because it allows both stimulation and silencing; in addition, passing fibers are not affected. Its combination with advanced gene engineering techniques makes the optogenetic technology one of the most powerful tools of neuroscientific research developed so far. Opsin expression can be made selective to neuron types; moreover, the stimulation of axons can dissect the roles of projections. The optogenetic technology was introduced into behavioral research rather early (Adamantidis et al. 2007; Aravanis et al. 2007). Aggression research benefited
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