Korean researchers remotely control mouse brains with magnetic power

Input 2021.01.29 01:00

Stimulate a specific area of ​​the right brain to command the left foot movement
Jin-Woo Chun, Director of IBS “Applicable to Parkinson’s Disease Treatment”

Researchers in Korea remotely controlled the brain motor nerves of mice with a magnetic field to move the mice in the desired direction.

The Institute of Basic Science (IBS) announced on the 29th that Chen Jin-woo, head of the Nanomedicine Research Center, has developed a’nanogenetics’ technology that remotely controls motor nerves using a magnetic field. The research results were published in the international journal’Nature Materials’.

The research team made a’nanocompass’ with a diameter of 0.0005 millimeters (㎜) and inserted it into a specific motor nerve cell site in the brain. When an external machine generates a magnetic field, the nanocompass in the brain works and affects the cells. The nanocompass controls the concentration of substances in the motor neurons that determine the body’s motor function.

The rat, which was manipulated in the right brain motor nerve area, moved to the left as the left foot motor nerve was more active than usual. Conversely, manipulating the left brain moved in the right direction.

“This is an experiment that has shown that it can control the motor functions of living animals,” said Chun.