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Descartes is dead, long live Spinoza. Neuroscientists and philosophers have now firmly rejected Descartes's mind-body dualism, embracing instead his peer and rival Spinoza, who believed that the soul and the body are one. Using technologies like functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, they have been probing the brain, seeking neural firing patterns that correspond with awareness and the self. Problem is, fMRI is still fairly crude, making their research quite fuzzy.
But now a team of American and Japanese scientists have proposed a revolutionary method to explore the brain, threading the thinking organ with platinum nanowires 100 times thinner than a human hair. The wires, which would enter the brain through blood vessels like a catheter, "may one day allow doctors to monitor individual brain cells," the researchers said.
That's great news, since one day the method could let them see in clear detail what really happens in the brain and which neurons snap into action when we reflect on our lives and ourselves, when we think of our loved ones, or when we just crave a cup of strong coffee in the morning.
"In this case, we see the first-ever application of nanotechnology to understanding the brain at the neuron-to-neuron interaction level with a non-intrusive, biocompatible and biodegradable nano-probe," said Michael Roco, senior advisor for nanotechnology at the National Science Foundation, which funded the research
The researchers envision "an entire array of nanowires being connected to a catheter tube, which could then be guided through the circulatory system to the brain. Once there, the nanowires would spread into a kind of bouquet, branching out into tinier and tinier blood vessels until they reached specific locations. Each nanowire would then be used to record the electrical activity of a single nerve cells, or small groups of nerve cells."
They also said that the technique could "greatly improve doctors' ability to pinpoint damage from injury and stroke, localize the cause of seizures, and detect the presence of tumors and other brain abnormalities." Since the wires could deliver electrical impulses as well as receive them, the method has potential as a treatment for Parkinson's and similar diseases.
As for finding the neural expression of the soul, the researchers stayed mum. But say it works, it seems that the technique could provide much sought after answers about who we are and where the self and awareness come from.
The research was carried out by scientists from New York University, MIT, and the Univesity of Tokyo. It was published in the current issue of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research.

Photo credit: Rat neurons, Omegafilters