Selparis

The workings of the brain have remained obscure throughout the development of neuroscience, with efforts to probe them often gruesomely coarse and attempts to change them . . . really even worse (from lobotomies to electroshock therapy, just to name the most well-known controversial techniques). That may all soon change.

Pyramidal Neuron in Mouse Cortex (courtesy Nrets at Wikipedia)

So far, examining the brain at the cellular level (as opposed to simply checking which region of the brain is electrically active) has been a surprisingly manual task. While other areas of biology have benefited from robotics and automation, the brain was left to the highly trained hands of brain surgeons. After all, the area is sensitive and merits painstaking care – especially since any proper study of the brain requires it to be a living brain.

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