Stimulating Nerves With Light Instead of Electricity Opens New Doors for Science

For decades now the standard approach to stimulating human nerve cells has been to use the method used by the human body itself - electrical current. Electrical stimulation of nerves is quite effective, but also comes with significant drawbacks including damage caused by the physical contact from the electrodes and the inability to stimulate at a small enough granularity, thereby causing undesired stimulation of nearby cells.

Recently researchers have devised an alternative solution to nerve stimulation: zapping them with a laser beam. Laser based nerve stimulation overcomes many of the problems associated with electrical stimulation: it requires no physical contact with the nerve cells and the laser can be tuned to precisely hit only the nerve cells that are desired. Laser based nerve stimulation could unleash a revolution in our ability to interface with nerve cells. For example, the precision offered by laser interfacing with human nerves may aid efforts to develop prosthetic limbs that are as dexterous as real human limbs.

This breakthrough in laser based nerve stimulation has created a flurry of press in recent months. In addition to the ieee article referenced above, another excellent article came from the researchers published by Spie. Interestingly, the exact mechanism by which laser light is able to cause neuron stimulation is unknown, as quoted here by the Spie article: