Astrocytes — brain cells that communicate with neurons — became more active during the testing.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Researchers at Harvard University gave ketamine to baby zebrafish while studying its effects on depression and helplessness,“It’s transparent, so you can basically see what’s going on in the entire brain all at once,” said
For the experiment, researchers needed to produce feelings of helplessness in the zebrafish. To do so, they turned to virtual reality.When researchers stopped showing the fish that visual stimulus, they found the fish “goes from swimming happily to getting stressed and struggling,” said Ramirez.” behavior is used to test antidepressant drugs in animals, especially mice. A promising drug will usually cause the animal to struggle longer before giving up.
When the baby zebrafish swam in water treated with ketamine, scientists found that different parts of the brain were activated.“When we looked acutely at what ketamine does, we saw that ketamine actually activates these astrocytes in a way that nothing else does,” Duque said.and receive the latest local news and weather straight to your email every morning.
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