New tool can switch behavior -- such as voracious eating -- 'on' and 'off'


Researchers at the University Of North Carolina School Of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have perfected a noninvasive "chemogenetic" technique that allows them to switch off a specific behavior in mice -- such as voracious eating -- and then switch it back on. The method works by targeting two different cell surface receptors of neurons that are responsible for triggering the specific chemical signals that control brain function and complex behaviors.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150430124000.htm