#27 – Adam Packer: Simultaneous manipulation and recording of neural activity with light Epistimones

Adam Packer is a neuroscientist and a Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Dale Fellow at the University of Oxford. He has helped pioneered all-optical interrogation techniques that allow simultaneous manipulation and recording of neural circuit activity with cellular resolution in vivo, and his research focuses on using these techniques to investigate how complex spatiotemporal activity patterns in neural circuits drive behaviour.



TIMESTAMPS

(00:40) – Most beautiful aspect of biology

(02:26) – What is the right level of explanation

(06:45) – Measuring neural activity

(17:38) – Manipulating neural activity

(21:35) – Optogenetics

(27:10) – Determining causality

(37:44) – Using light to measure and manipulate neural activity

(49:32) – Voltage imaging

(53:24) – New insights

(55:06) – Adam’s journey in science

(1:03:28) – Consciousness

(1:05:18) – Theory in neuroscience

(1:07:19) – Progress in neuroscience

(1:08:14) – Advice for young scientists