synapsis

In the late teenage years, a normal extensive pruning of the number of connections between nerve cells, so-called synapses, and takes place through microglia (the brain's immune cells) selectively degrading less desirable connections.

In a new study in Science, researchers at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT demonstrate for the first time how this balance is struck: when one connection, called a synapse, strengthens, immediately neighboring synapses weaken based on the action of a crucial protein called Arc.

Nevertheless, important observations were done in the 1950-60s by Bernard Katz and colleagues, using model preparations, such as squid giant synapses and frog neuromuscular junctions.

Other superconducting devices mimicking the human brain cells and transmission have been developed in the past, but efficient synapses have been missing.

Understanding how the synapses function and learning ways to strengthen and protect them can help you maintain an alert and active mind at any age.

"Via a network of neurons and synapses the brain can process and store vast amounts of information simultaneously, using only a few tens of watts of power.

They correlated with data for human beings and found that the synapses or connections between brain cells, expand and grow during the day when our brain is active.

It is estimated that there are more than one hundred billion neurons in the human brain, connected to one another by hundreds of trillions of contact points called synapses. These synaptic connections wire select neurons into functional neuronal circuits, enabling the brain to process and transfer information.

The new work pins the loss of synapses, which connect nerve cells, on particular immune system molecules and a notorious Alzheimer's-linked protein.

ISLAMABAD -- People with autism have too many synapses - the connectors by which brain cells send and receive signals - according to a new study that may point to a treatment for the complex disorder.

Eaton and lead author Rebekah Mahoney, a graduate student, recorded changes in the neuromuscular junction synapses of aging fruit flies.