![]() Smith then trained rats to run down one arm of his T-shaped maze towards some chocolate, or down the other towards a sugary drink. ![]() Working with supervisor Ann Graybiel and optogenetics founder Karl Deisseroth, Smith filled his rats’ ILCs with halorhodopsin – a protein that comes from salt-loving microbes, and silences neurons when hit by yellow light. By choosing the right protein, and targeting the right part of the brain, scientists can now excite or silence a chosen group of neurons with astounding precision, using little more than flashes of coloured light. This revolutionary technique takes light-sensitive proteins from around the tree of life, and uses viruses to introduce them into an animal’s neurons. Smith’s team wanted some more refined, something that could inactivate the ILC on demand for short bursts of time. “Changing the activity of this small cortex area could profoundly change how habitual behaviour was, in a matter of seconds.” By cutting out bits of a rodent’s brain, or inactivating them with chemicals, other scientists had already identified parts of the brain, including the ILC, that are important for habits. “We were all stunned by how immediate and on-line these effects really are,” says Smith. And they can be disrupted in surprisingly quick and simple ways. They’re ingrained and durable, but subject to second-by-second control. The experiment shows that even though habits seem automatic, they still depend on ongoing supervision from the ILC and possibly other parts of the brain. The rat hears the tone, but no longer heads down the chocolate arm. The light flashes for just three seconds, and the habit disappears. This addition allows Smith to silence the neurons in this one area with a flash of yellow light, delivered to the rat’s brain via an optic fibre. Earlier, Kyle Smith had added a light-sensitive protein to one small part of its brain – the infralimbic cortex (ILC). ![]() But they are not, and the MIT rat tells us why. Habits, by their very nature, seem permanent, stable, automatic. Every morning, I hear my alarm go off, put some clothes on, and shamble into the kitchen to brew some coffee. The rat has done the same thing over so many days that once it hears the tone, it’ll run in the same direction even if there’s no chocolate to be found. To a lot of people, including myself, the words "energy sword and laser rifle" are desirability enough.In a lab at MIT, a rat enters a T-shaped maze, hears a tone, and runs down the left arm towards a piece of chocolate. It was a bit of a challenge trying to make as desirable as other subclasses at low levels without going overboard with strength, at least mechanically. Its overall power fluctuates, at 3rd level it's likely a little weaker than a regular battlesmith, however it comes far more into its own at 9th and 15th. I like to think it's become thematically strong and mechanically sound enough to warrant being a subclass in its own right. This artificer subclass admittedly started as nothing more than a way to create laser swords that weren't the sunblade. Excerpt from the battle report of General Nicholas Edwins of House Deneith Before I could even give the order battlefield erupted into a lightshow so brilliant I doubt even our war mages could match its extravagance, and when the lights died down the enemy forces had been cut down, just like that. ![]() When the reinforcements arrived and they were nothing more than a few measly tinkerers with glorified torches I was ready to surrender right there and then. ![]()
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