With a tiny diode inserted into a mouse’s skull, researchers can stimulate its neurons while it runs freely on an exercise wheel or crawls through cardboard tubes, they reported yesterday at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Tune in for daily updates and reactions from attendees at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Light-transmitting cables implanted deep in mouse brains reveal connections between brain regions that control social interactions, according to a study published 19 June in Cell.

A much-celebrated technique called optogenetics causes neurons to fire in response to flashes of light. Researchers have now figured out how to use the method to switch neurons off, reports a study published 25 April in Science.

Triggering neuron activity with flashes of light allows scientists to tie behaviors in fruit fly larvae to specific neuron groups, reports a study published 25 April in Science. The study catalogs the associations between neurons and the movements they control.

Using newly discovered molecules from algae, researchers can control the activity of two families of neurons in a single mouse or fly, they reported 9 February in Nature Methods.

A tiny fiber-optic probe inserted into the reward center of the mouse brain monitors how the mouse feels about meeting a peer — or a golf ball. The unpublished technique was presented last week at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.

Tune in for daily updates and reactions from attendees at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, California.

Activating cells in the cerebellum, a brain region usually associated with movement, eliminates seizures in a mouse strain that normally has hundreds of seizures a day, according to results presented Saturday at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.

Researchers have modified optogenetics — a technique that activates neurons in mouse brains with beams of light — to toggle a gene on or off. They reported the advance 22 August in Nature.