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All Articles Tagged As: synapses

Get smart about what you eat and you might actually improve your intelligence (7/4/2008)

Researchers offer tantalizing evidence on how to make people smarter, naturally ...> Full Article

Chemical Messenger Lets Synapses Communicate as Neurons Learn (6/16/2008)

By stimulating a single neuronal synapse, researchers triggered local activation of the enzyme Ras. During the next several minutes, active Ras escaped the stimulated spine and spread into neighboring spines. ...> Full Article

Origins of the brain (6/9/2008)

Complex synapses drove brain evolution ...> Full Article

Scientists Discover a Molecular Scaffold That Guides Connections Between Brain Cells (5/21/2008)

Non-signaling glial cells can direct synapse formation in the forging of neural networks ...> Full Article

Mechanisms of memory identified (4/27/2008)

Major step forward in understanding how memory works ...> Full Article

Stopping a receptor called 'nogo' boosts the synapses (3/21/2008)

Findings could help explain brain benefits of exercise ...> Full Article

Study: Brain connections strengthen during waking hours, weaken during sleep (1/21/2008)

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. ...> Full Article

Novel mechanism for long-term learning identified by researchers (1/5/2008)

Practice makes perfect - or at least that's what we're told as we struggle through endless rounds of multiplication tables, goal kicks and piano scales - and it seems, based on the personal experience of many, to be true. That's why neuroscientists have been perplexed by data showing that at the level of individual synapses, or connections between neurons, increased, repetitive stimulation might actually reverse early gains in synaptic strength. Now, neuroscientists from Carnegie Mellon University and the Max Planck Institute have discovered the mechanism that resolves this apparent paradox. The findings are published in the Jan. 4 issue of Science. ...> Full Article

New Studies Illuminate the Computational Power of Neurons (12/25/2007)

Scientists have found that individual neurons have more computational power and contribute more to behavior than previously thought. The researchers used light to activate individual neurons in living mice and showed that even short bursts of activity in a few neurons can influence learning and decision making. ...> Full Article

A Key Enzyme Helps Keep the Synapse on Track (12/24/2007)

At its core, healthy neurological function hinges on the efficient passage of information between brain cells via the synapse. ...> Full Article

Watching the synapses form in an intact organism (12/22/2007)

Synapses are specialized junctions through which neurons signal to each other and to other target cells such as muscles and are crucial to the functioning of the nervous system. However, the mechanism of how the synapses form during development remains poorly understood. ...> Full Article