Carl Schoonover: How to look inside the brain

Translator: Faradila Zuchrina Reviewer: Made Pramana

Ini adalah gambar otak yang berusia ribuan tahun.

Ini diagram sistem penglihatan.

Beberapa hal terlihat familier.

Dua mata di bawah, saraf optik mengalir dari belakang.

This is a thousand-year-old drawing of the brain.

Ada hidung yang sangat besar

It's a diagram of the visual system.

yang sepertinya tidak terhubung dengan apa pun.

And some things look very familiar today.

Jika kita bandingkan ini

Two eyes at the bottom, optic nerve flowing out from the back.

dengan gambaran yang lebih baru,

terlihat bahwa beberapa hal menjadi semakin rumit

There's a very large nose

selama ribuan tahun.

that doesn't seem to be connected to anything in particular.

Dan hal itu karena sekarang kita bisa melihat isi otak,

dibandingkan hanya melihat bentuknya secara umum.

And if we compare this

to more recent representations of the visual system,

Bayangkan kalian ingin mengerti cara kerja komputer

you'll see that things have gotten substantially more complicated

dan hanya bisa melihat keyboard, mouse, layar.

over the intervening thousand years.

And that's because today we can see what's inside of the brain,

Kalian akan kurang beruntung.

rather than just looking at its overall shape.

Kalian ingin bisa membukanya, membongkarnya,

Imagine you wanted to understand how a computer works

melihat kabel di dalamnya.

Sampai lebih dari seabad yang lalu,

and all you could see was a keyboard, a mouse, a screen.

tak ada yang bisa melakukannya dengan otak.

Tak ada yang pernah melihat kabel otak.

You really would be kind of out of luck.

Jika kalian mengambil otak dari tengkorak

You want to be able to open it up, crack it open,

lalu memotong satu irisan tips,

look at the wiring inside.

meletakkannya di bawah mikroskop yang canggih,

And up until a little more than a century ago,

tak ada apa-apa di situ. Warnanya abu-abu, tanpa bentuk.

nobody was able to do that with the brain.

Nobody had had a glimpse of the brain's wiring.

Tidak ada strukturnya. Kalian tidak dapat apa pun.

And that's because if you take a brain out of the skull

Segalanya berubah pada abad ke-19.

and you cut a thin slice of it,

Tiba-tiba, pewarna kimia untuk jaringan otak dikembangkan

put it under even a very powerful microscope,

there's nothing there.

dan menunjukkan kita secercah jaringan otak.

It's gray, formless.

There's no structure. It won't tell you anything.

Komputer pun terbongkar.

And this all changed in the late 19th century.

Jadi, hal yang meluncurkan neurosains modern

Suddenly, new chemical stains for brain tissue were developed

adalah pewarna yang disebut pewarna Golgi.

Itu bekerja dengan cara yang khas.

and they gave us our first glimpses at brain wiring.

Bukannya mewarnai semua sel yang ada di dalam jaringan,

The computer was cracked open.

itu malah hanya mewarnai 1% darinya saja.

So what really launched modern neuroscience

Hutan dibersihkan, menunjukkan pohon-pohon di dalamnya.

was a stain called the Golgi stain.

And it works in a very particular way.

Jika segalanya ditandai, tidak ada yang terlihat.

Instead of staining all of the cells inside of a tissue,

Pewarna menunjukkan apa yang ada.

it somehow only stains about one percent of them.

Ahli neuroanatomi Spanyol, Santiago Ramon y Cajal,

yang dianggap Bapak Neurosains Modern,

It clears the forest, reveals the trees inside.

membubuhkan pewarna Golgi ini, menciptakan data seperti ini,

If everything had been labeled, nothing would have been visible.

So somehow it shows what's there.

dan memberikan ide modern tentang sel saraf, neuron.

Spanish neuroanatomist Santiago Ramon y Cajal,

Anggaplah otak sebagai komputer,

who's widely considered the father of modern neuroscience,

ini adalah transistor.

applied this Golgi stain, which yields data which looks like this,

Cajal langsung menyadari

neuron tidak bekerja sendiri,

and really gave us the modern notion of the nerve cell, the neuron.

tetapi berhubungan satu sama lain

membentuk sirkuit seperti pada komputer.

And if you're thinking of the brain as a computer,

this is the transistor.

Sekarang, setelah seabad, saat ingin memvisualisasikan neuron,

And very quickly Cajal realized

peneliti menyinarinya dari dalam daripada menggelapkannya.

that neurons don't operate alone,

Ada beberapa cara mengerjakannya. Namun, yang paling populer

but rather make connections with others

memerlukan protein fluoresens hijau.

that form circuits just like in a computer.

Sekarang, protein fluoresens hijau,

Today, a century later, when researchers want to visualize neurons,

yang berasal dari ubur-ubur bioluminesens,

they light them up from the inside rather than darkening them.

adalah sangat bermanfaat.

Jika kalian mendapatkan gen protein fluoresens hijau

And there's several ways of doing this.

But one of the most popular ones

dan mengantarkannya ke sebuah sel,

involves green fluorescent protein.

sel tersebut akan bercahaya hijau

Now green fluorescent protein,

atau salah satu dari berbagai varian protein fluoresens hijau,

which oddly enough comes from a bioluminescent jellyfish,

memancarkan berbagai jenis warna.

is very useful.

Because if you can get the gene for green fluorescent protein

Kembali lagi ke otak,

ini dari tikus rekayasa genetika bernama “Brainbow”.

and deliver it to a cell,

that cell will glow green --

Tentunya dinamakan seperti itu,

or any of the many variants now of green fluorescent protein,

karena semua neuronnya memancarkan warna yang berbeda.

you get a cell to glow many different colors.

Sekarang, kadang para ahli neurosains perlu mengidentifikasi

And so coming back to the brain,

this is from a genetically engineered mouse called "Brainbow."

komponen molekular dari neuron, molekul,

And it's so called, of course,

daripada keseluruhan sel.

because all of these neurons are glowing different colors.

Ada beberapa cara melakukan ini,

tapi yang paling populer

Now sometimes neuroscientists need to identify

melibatkan penggunaan antibodi.

Kalian tentu sudah familier

dengan antibodi sebagai anak buah dari sistem imun.

individual molecular components of neurons, molecules,

rather than the entire cell.

Ternyata, itu sangat berguna bagi sistem imun

And there's several ways of doing this,

karena bisa mengenali molekul spesifik,

but one of the most popular ones

contohnya selubung protein dari sebuah virus yang menyerang tubuh.

involves using antibodies.

And you're familiar, of course,

with antibodies as the henchmen of the immune system.

Para peneliti memakai informasi ini

But it turns out that they're so useful to the immune system

untuk mengenali molekul spesifik dalam otak,

because they can recognize specific molecules,

mengenali substruktur spesifik pada sel,

like, for example, the coat protein

of a virus that's invading the body.

dan mengidentifikasinya secara individual.

Gambar yang saya tunjukkan ini tak hanya sangat indah,

And researchers have used this fact

in order to recognize specific molecules inside of the brain,

tetapi juga sangat kuat.

Mereka punya kekuatan yang hebat.

recognize specific substructures of the cell

Sebagai contoh, ini adalah pewarna antibodi

terhadap pengangkut serotonin pada irisan otak tikus.

and identify them individually.

And a lot of the images I've been showing you here are very beautiful,

Kalian tentu mengenal serotonin,

dalam konteks penyakit seperti depresi dan kegelisahan.

but they're also very powerful.

They have great explanatory power.

Kalian pernah dengar SSRI,

This, for example, is an antibody staining

yaitu obat yang digunakan untuk mengobati penyakit tersebut.

against serotonin transporters in a slice of mouse brain.

Untuk memahami cara kerja serotonin,

And you've heard of serotonin, of course,

penting sekali memahami di mana mesin serotonin.

in the context of diseases like depression and anxiety.

Pewarna antibodi seperti ini

You've heard of SSRIs,

dapat digunakan untuk memahami pertanyaan semacam itu.

which are drugs that are used to treat these diseases.

Saya ingin meninggalkan pemikiran ini:

And in order to understand how serotonin works,

Protein fluoresens hijau dan antibodi

it's critical to understand where the serontonin machinery is.

merupakan produk alami dari awal.

And antibody stainings like this one

can be used to understand that sort of question.

Mereka berubah secara alami

untuk membuat ubur-ubur menyala hijau,

I'd like to leave you with the following thought:

atau misalnya mendeteksi kulit protein dari virus yang menyerang.

Green fluorescent protein and antibodies

are both totally natural products at the get-go.

Kemudian, para ilmuwan hadir

They were evolved by nature

dan berkata, “Hei, ini adalah alat-alat

in order to get a jellyfish to glow green for whatever reason,

yang fungsinya dapat kita gunakan

or in order to detect the coat protein of an invading virus, for example.

pada peralatan penelitian kita.”

Bukannya menerapkan akal manusia yang lemah

And only much later did scientists come onto the scene

dalam merancang peralatan ini dari awal,

and say, "Hey, these are tools,

ada solusi siap pakai tersedia di alam

these are functions that we could use

dikembangkan dan diperbaiki terus menerus selama jutaan tahun

in our own research tool palette."

And instead of applying feeble human minds

oleh Perancang Terhebat.

Terima kasih.

(Tepuk Tangan)

to designing these tools from scratch,

there were these ready-made solutions right out there in nature

developed and refined steadily for millions of years

by the greatest engineer of all.

Thank you.

(Applause)