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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Light mentally teleports mice to another time and place

After scientists activate specialized cells in a mouse’s brain, the rodent acts is if it were somewhere else.
Light micrograph of pyramidal neurons of the cerebral cortex stained with Golgi silver chromate.

Brain cells called pyramidal neurons. Switching on place cells, which are a subtype of pyramidal neuron, can trick mice into thinking they are somewhere that they’re not. Credit: Jose Calvo/SPL

Instant travel is the stuff of science fiction, but using one’s mind to beam across space might not be so far-fetched. Activating specific cells in the brains of mice causes the animals to act as if they were in a different place.

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Nature 587, 333 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03164-w

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