Abstract: Light can be sensitized by organisms from lower bacteria and algae to higher animals including as humans through rhodopsin system. Since the 1970s, identification of several channelrhodopsins in bacteria and algae laid the foundation for lightcontrolled
operation. Optogenetics, initiated by Gero Miesenböck in 2002 and further developed by Karl Deisseroth and Edward Boyden in 2005, has greatly enhanced our understanding of brain function. Optogenetics allows scientists to switch on or off specificn eurons in the brain using light and manipulate the activity of neurons and animal’s behavior. Optogenetics was proven to be a highly powerful and useful tool for studying healthy and pathological brain activity from a cellular and system level. In the article, there are systematically introduced including the historical background, major events, development process, application fields and important values of optogenetics.