Latest Chemical synapse Stories

A protein called Pum regulates the expression of genes that alter synaptic plasticityTo lock in a memory, nerve cells must strengthen their connections with some neighbors but not others. Three research groups at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have collaborated to identify a protein whose action helps alter the strength of synaptic connections in fruit flies as they form memories.Synapses are the tiny gaps across which information crosses between nerve cells. Changes in the strength of...

MADISON "“ Most people know it from experience: After so many hours of being awake, your brain feels unable to absorb any more -- and several hours of sleep will refresh it. Now new research from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health clarifies this phenomenon, supporting the idea that sleep plays a critical role in the brain's ability to change in response to its environment. This ability, called plasticity, is at the heart of learning. Reporting in the Jan. 20,...

By Anthony J. Brown, MDNEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When someone suffers a stroke, 1.9 million nerve cells in the brain die each minute, and the oxygen-starved brain ages about 3.6 years each hour -- further emphasizing the need for rapid treatment -- researchers say."'Time is brain' is a popular saying: clinical outcomes have been shown to deteriorate the longer treatment is delayed," study author Dr. Jeffrey L. Saver, from the University of California in Los Angeles, told Reuters...

By Anthony J. Brown, MDNEW YORK -- When someone suffers a stroke, 1.9 million nerve cells in the brain die each minute, and the oxygen-starved brain ages about 3.6 years each hour -- further emphasizing the need for rapid treatment -- researchers say."'Time is brain' is a popular saying: clinical outcomes have been shown to deteriorate the longer treatment is delayed," study author Dr. Jeffrey L. Saver, from the University of California in Los Angeles, told Reuters Health.However,...

The ability of the brain to transmit and process information requires a lifelong commitment to maintaining the integrity of synapses--the special connections that permit the passage of nerve impulses from one nerve cell to another, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and colleagues in Hokkaido University School of Medicine (Japan). A report on this work appears in the November 15 issue of Nature Neuroscience. This long-term commitment requires proteins called...

AUSTIN, Texas--Neurons experience large-scale changes across their dendrites during learning, say neuroscientists at The University of Texas at Austin in a new study that highlights the important role that these cell regions may play in the processes of learning and memory. The research, published online Oct. 23 and in the November issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, shows that ion channels distributed in the dendritic membrane change during a simulated learning task and that this...

A UCSF study has found that a specific signaling link between neurons and muscles in the fruit fly is essential for keeping the insect's nervous system stable. The findings are relevant for ongoing research in identifying causes and developing treatments for neuromuscular neurodegenerative diseases in humans, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, says study co-author Graeme Davis, PhD, associate professor and vice chair of the Department of...

New Haven, Conn. - Inhibitory systems are essential for controlling the pattern of activity in the cortex, which has important implications for the mechanisms of cortical operation, according to a Yale School of Medicine study in Neuron. The findings demonstrate the inhibitory network is central to controlling not only the amplitude, extent and duration of activation of recurrent excitatory cortical networks, but also the precise timing of action potentials, and, thus, network...

Nerve cells need lots of energy to work properly, and the energy needs to be delivered to the right place at the right time. By inducing a mutation in fruit flies, researchers have figured out that a particular gene governs the movement of cells' energy-producing units, called mitochondria.Rather than moving to the ends of the cells, or synapses, where cell-to-cell communication takes place, mitochondria in mutant fruit flies just piled up in the center of the cell. Even so, the mutant cells...

Researchers have constructed a new detailed map of the three-dimensional terrain of a synapse -- the junction between neurons which are critical for communication in the brain and nervous system. The "nano-map," which shows the tiny spines and valleys resolved at nanometer scale, or one-billionth of a meter, has already proven its worth in changing scientists' views of the synaptic landscape. Using the map as a guide, the research team, led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute...