Minimally invasive neural stimulation with a novel ultra-sensitive step function opsin: implications and future directions.

Optogenetics has become a popular tool to probe the link between neural circuits and behavior, since the technique was first introduced in 2005. Recently, Gong et al. (Gong X, Mendoza-Halliday D, Ting JT, Kaiser T, Sun X, Bastos AM, Wimmer RD, Guo B, Chen Q, Zhou Y, Pruner M, Wu CWH, Park D, Deisseroth K, Barak B, Boyden ES, Miller EK, Halassa MM, Fu Z, Bi G, Desimone R, Feng G. Neuron 107: 38-51, 2020) developed an ultra-sensitive step-function opsin capable of activating any region of the mouse brain and cortical areas in macaques with external illumination, thus aiming toward minimally invasive light delivery. In this article, we highlight and discuss the new opsin's potential in nonhuman primate research.