Litigation

Nerve cell connections captured by new imaging system

By Michael Kaplen

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, applying a state-of-the-art imaging system to brain-tissue samples from mice, have been able to quickly and accurately locate and count the myriad connections between nerve cells in unprecedented detail, as well as to capture and catalog those connections' surprising variety.

A typical healthy human brain contains about 200 billion nerve cells, or neurons, linked to one another via hundreds of trillions of tiny contacts called synapses. It is at these synapses that an electrical impulse traveling along one neuron is relayed to another, either enhancing or inhibiting the likelihood that the second nerve will  fire an impulse of its own. The paper is described in the November 18^th issue of Neuron.

Because synapses are so minute and packed so closely together, it has been hard to get a handle on the complex neuronal circuits that do our thinking, feeling and activation of movement. But the new method may put the mapping of these connections within scientists' grasp. It works by combining high-resolution photography with specialized fluorescent molecules that bind to different proteins and glow in different colors. Massive computing power captures this information and converts it into imagery.

Full post as published by Brain Injury News and Information on December 01, 2010 (boomark / email).