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Referee Comments: Referee 2

Posted by PLOS_ONE_Group on 26 Apr 2007 at 11:17 GMT

Reviewer #2's Review

"This is a creative and nicely presented report of a timely new technique for turning off neurons optically. The excitement is somewhat lessened by the fact that it is a improved (significantly, to be sure) technique rather than a completely new one. A nice add-on is that they express a second dye in the same neurons that allows them to excite the same neuron with a second wavelength. This is a very exciting and flashy (pun intended) way to control the state of activity of a large number of neurons at one time in a functioning circuit. They do an excellent job of pointing out how this technique may be applied to study the necessity and sufficiency of particular neurons, their patterns of activity, and the coordination between neurons."

n.b. These are the general comments made by the reviewer when reviewing this paper. Specific points addressed during revision of the paper are not shown.