(Nanowerk Spotlight) The complex neural networks of the human brain, with their trillions of interconnected neurons communicating via synapses, endow us with unparalleled cognitive abilities. Yet the ...

Your brain doesn t just send messages through one universal route it uses separate pathways for spontaneous activity and signals linked to learning. These findings overturn a major neuroscience ...

Scientists show that specifying the timing pattern of neurostimulation -- impulses used to activate the brain's own electrical signaling mechanisms -- can rebalance the strength of synaptic ...

Researchers at Leipzig University's Carl Ludwig Institute have discovered that in the cerebral cortex, synaptic signal transmission between brain cells functions very reliably even at low ...

Harvard researchers have mapped and catalogued more than 70,000 synaptic connections from about 2,000 rat neurons, using a silicon chip capable of recording small yet telltale synaptic signals from a ...

This original animation illustrates that presynaptic neurons secrete VLK, which then phosphorylates the extracellular side of ephrin type-B receptor 2 (EphB2) extruding from the membranes of ...

Both presenilin-1 or the less-studied presenilin-2 can act as the catalytic subunit of γ-secretase, the enzyme responsible for churning out Aβ peptides. A new study, published November 29 in Nature ...

Increased levels of bioactive lipids produced naturally in the body, which affect excitatory transmission between brain cells, promote mental disorders. However, this mechanism can be rebalanced by ...

Synaptic transmission is an energy hog. It requires neurons to tap ATP reserves to respond to incoming signals. How do they pull this off, thousands to millions of times per day? A new study ...

A new study from Pitt researchers challenges a decades-old assumption in neuroscience by showing that the brain uses distinct transmission sites - not a shared site - to achieve different types of ...