Psychiatric Symptoms May Signal Brain Damage From Diet Pills
...nsport messenger chemicals like serotonin and form synapses -- connections with other neurons. Fenfluramines damage serotonin-secreting neurons by pruning these axons, which do not grow back in monkeys, although studies show that they do in rodents. And since human brains are more like those of monkeys, an...Research Explains Lithium's Dual Anti-Manic/Anti-Depressive Effect
...wed that lithium causes glutamate to accumulate in synapses of mice andmonkey brain slices, but exactly how it worked remained unclear until now. In the current study, functioning slices of mice brain were examined followingexposure to lithium, while control slices were not exposed to the drug. Theresearcher...Possible Mechanism For Estrogen Memory Enhancement Found
...the transmission of electrical impulses across the synapses betweenneurons. "The estrogen activated both receptors within minutes -- causing a lastingincrease in neuronal activity," Thompson reports. "Estrogen also enhanced theprocess of long-term potentiation. Activating the NMDA receptor apparentlyinitiates......peculated -- spines dochange their morphology when synapses are functionally strengthened. This advance has be... (but not short-lasting) functional enhancement of synapses newspines appeared on the postsynaptic dendrite, while in control regions on thesame dendrite or in ...Nerve Cells Live Long And Talkative Lives In Sculpted Colonies On Silicon Chips
...ton, the chemical activity that takes place at the synapses ofhippocampal neurons is well understood, and can be manipulated at the individualneuron level by administration of minute, precisely-measured quantities ofsubstances to enhance or inhibit any given neurotransmitters. The result is a "bionic chip" th...Use it or lose it applies to nervous system, scientists find
...peter, Ph.D., of Cornell University. Neuromuscular synapses connect nerve terminals to muscle fibers. When the... researchers measured the brightness of individual synapses immediately afterapplying fluorescent bungarotoxin to muscle fibers in a mouse's neck. Theylocated t...Pathway may provide target for treating chronic pain
...reventing patients from feeling pain. Silent synapses provide a second network of junctions that normall...esiology, reported that they could identify silent synapses by monitoringelectrical responses of individual neurons. After these synapses were awakened,they rem...Brains of those in certain professions shown to have more synapses
...ian neuroscientists say. "There clearly were more synapses found in subjects with intellectually skilled prof...caused newsynapses to form, or if people with more synapses tended to choose challenging professions." The team's preliminary findings were presented in late O...New understanding of a key control mechanism in the brain
...neighbors. They found that I-neurons build complex synapses (connections) onto their target neurons. The synapses selectively filter inhibitory messages, enabling I-neurons to shut down the activity in neighbors as...OHSU researchers discover new synapses in brain
... and the University of Oxford have discovered that synapses also are used to communicate with other specialize...ligodendrocytes. Studying these previously unknown synapses may provide a key for understanding brain function in health and disease. These results appear in t...OHSU researchers capture cell transmissions on tape for first time
... failure or malfunction of synapses. Understanding synapses will aid us in discovering treatment strategies." The messages are sent in the form of vesicles, which are tiny membranous bags filled with a chemical substance called transmitter. When vesicles empty their transmitter onto cells, ion channels open a...Study describes brain changes during learning
...ation (LTP), which in turn strengthens synapses in the cerebral cortex. The study pro... In previous studies, the researchers showed that synapses were modifiable through the LTP process when those synapses were activated artificially ...Mouse provides clues about chronic pain
... transmissions between neurons at junctions called synapses were significantly strengthened (potentiated) for ... However, when excessive information reaches these synapses between nerve cells, normally-dormant NMDA receptors can be activated, and a series of intracellular...UCSF researchers move in on role of brain's naturally occurring marijuana
... by which neurons can communicate backwards across synapses to modulate their inputs," says senior author Nicoll. Notably, this rare, so-called retrograde system is only activated when excitatory neurons are in a particularly heightened electrical state, which probably explains a unique characteristic: Whi...Alcohol and nicotine: A deadly duo
...nicotinic cholinergic synapses. Blockade of these synapses appears to reduce the release of the neurotransmit...fects of alcohol. In short, nicotinic cholinergic synapses appear to be important in the positive effects of alcohol, which suggests that modification of this ...Complex physical learning may compensate for prenatal alcohol exposure, study shows
...gimen of complex motor training, and generated new synapses in their cerebellum. About 0.1 percent of U.S. bir...he complex learning test had about 20 percent more synapses than all of the rats that did not train. In a follow-up experiment, not reported in this study, the ...Immune alarm system can both amplify and silence alerts, scientists find
...also have specialized structures at areas known as synapses where they pass messages to each other, the authors referred to the contact between the immune cells as an immune synapse. Shaw and colleagues had shown through years of research that specialized synapse structures formed when antigen-presenting cell...'Good' chemical, neurons in brain elevated among exercise addicts
...er in Portland. "BDNF helps support and strengthen synapses in the brain. We find that exercise increases these good things." Mice bred for 30 generations to display increased voluntary wheel running behavior an "exercise addiction" showed higher amounts of BDNF than normal, sedentary mice. In fact, the BDN...Evidence that neurons prune only 'twigs' to rewire themselves
...eurons in the olfactory bulb are constantly losing synapses linked to sensory cells that are dying and gaining new ones connected to new sensory cells." Thus, he said, detailed observation of those neurons should yield a clear look at neurons in the process of rewiring during ordinary experience. The scienti......itter receptors -- the proteins on the surfaces of synapses that serve as receiving stations for neurotransmit...it explains how this process can happen at all the synapses on a neuron, because it happens in the neuron's nucleus, where mRNA splicing happens." According to ...