full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Gero Miesenboeck: Re-engineering the brain

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now let's take a look at these miraculous receivers up csloe. As we zoom in on one of these purple neurons, we see that its outer membrane is studded with microscopic pores. Pores like these conduct elceirctal current and are responsible for all the communication in the nrouves system. But these pores here are special. They are coupled to light receptors similar to the ones in your eyes. Whenever a flash of light hits the receptor, the pore onpes, an electrical current is swihcted on, and the nreoun fires electrical ilpusmes. Because the light-activated pore is encoded in DNA, we can achieve incredible precision. This is because, although each cell in our beidos contains the same set of genes, different mixes of genes get turned on and off in different cells. You can exploit this to make sure that only some neurons contain our light-activated pore and others don't. So in this cartoon, the bilush white cell in the upper-left corner does not respond to lhgit because it lacks the light-activated pore. The approach works so well that we can write purely artificial messages directly to the brain. In this example, each electrical impulse, each deflection on the trace, is caused by a brief pulse of light. And the approach, of course, also works in moving, behaving aminals.

Open Cloze


Now let's take a look at these miraculous receivers up _____. As we zoom in on one of these purple neurons, we see that its outer membrane is studded with microscopic pores. Pores like these conduct __________ current and are responsible for all the communication in the _______ system. But these pores here are special. They are coupled to light receptors similar to the ones in your eyes. Whenever a flash of light hits the receptor, the pore _____, an electrical current is ________ on, and the ______ fires electrical ________. Because the light-activated pore is encoded in DNA, we can achieve incredible precision. This is because, although each cell in our ______ contains the same set of genes, different mixes of genes get turned on and off in different cells. You can exploit this to make sure that only some neurons contain our light-activated pore and others don't. So in this cartoon, the ______ white cell in the upper-left corner does not respond to _____ because it lacks the light-activated pore. The approach works so well that we can write purely artificial messages directly to the brain. In this example, each electrical impulse, each deflection on the trace, is caused by a brief pulse of light. And the approach, of course, also works in moving, behaving _______.

Solution


  1. impulses
  2. bluish
  3. switched
  4. light
  5. animals
  6. opens
  7. nervous
  8. electrical
  9. close
  10. bodies
  11. neuron

Original Text


Now let's take a look at these miraculous receivers up close. As we zoom in on one of these purple neurons, we see that its outer membrane is studded with microscopic pores. Pores like these conduct electrical current and are responsible for all the communication in the nervous system. But these pores here are special. They are coupled to light receptors similar to the ones in your eyes. Whenever a flash of light hits the receptor, the pore opens, an electrical current is switched on, and the neuron fires electrical impulses. Because the light-activated pore is encoded in DNA, we can achieve incredible precision. This is because, although each cell in our bodies contains the same set of genes, different mixes of genes get turned on and off in different cells. You can exploit this to make sure that only some neurons contain our light-activated pore and others don't. So in this cartoon, the bluish white cell in the upper-left corner does not respond to light because it lacks the light-activated pore. The approach works so well that we can write purely artificial messages directly to the brain. In this example, each electrical impulse, each deflection on the trace, is caused by a brief pulse of light. And the approach, of course, also works in moving, behaving animals.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
nervous system 4
electrical current 3
nerve cell 2
electrical impulses 2
headless bodies 2
actor implements 2
brain structure 2
electronic toy 2
mushroom body 2
blue leds 2
odor detector 2


Important Words


  1. achieve
  2. animals
  3. approach
  4. artificial
  5. behaving
  6. bluish
  7. bodies
  8. brain
  9. cartoon
  10. caused
  11. cell
  12. cells
  13. close
  14. communication
  15. conduct
  16. corner
  17. coupled
  18. current
  19. deflection
  20. dna
  21. electrical
  22. encoded
  23. exploit
  24. eyes
  25. fires
  26. flash
  27. genes
  28. hits
  29. impulse
  30. impulses
  31. incredible
  32. lacks
  33. light
  34. membrane
  35. messages
  36. microscopic
  37. miraculous
  38. mixes
  39. moving
  40. nervous
  41. neuron
  42. neurons
  43. opens
  44. outer
  45. pore
  46. pores
  47. precision
  48. pulse
  49. purely
  50. purple
  51. receivers
  52. receptor
  53. receptors
  54. respond
  55. responsible
  56. set
  57. similar
  58. special
  59. studded
  60. switched
  61. system
  62. trace
  63. turned
  64. white
  65. works
  66. write
  67. zoom