Reading Neurochemical Activity in Real-Time

Scientists have created cells with fluorescent dyes that change color in response to specific neurochemicals. By implanting these cells into living mammalian brains, they have shown how neurochemical signaling changes as a food reward drives learning, they report in iNature Methods/i online October 26. These cells, called CNiFERs (pronounced "sniffers"), can detect small amounts of a neurotransmitter, either dopamine or norepinephrine, with fine resolution in ...