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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday May 08 2018, @06:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the on-or-off dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3941

As the brain grows and develops, nerve cells must make connections between one another in order to function properly. Brain cells are tightly packed together, so each cell might touch hundreds or thousands of other cells, and yet those cells only make stable and strong connections with a fraction of those neighboring cells. Researchers have long puzzled over how the probing finger-like neuronal protrusions called filopodia decide on the right place to land and make a stable link. Now researchers at Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University) have shown that a single molecule makes the yes-or-no decision at each touch with a neighboring neuron.

The new research was published in the Cell Press journal Neuron, and could have implications for our understanding of synapse-related diseases such as autism, Down syndrome, addiction or epilepsy.

"We've shown here that one molecule can both repel unproductive contacts and connect where appropriate based on the kinds of signals that pass through that molecule," said senior author on the paper Matthew Dalva, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience at The Vickie & Jack Farber Institute for Neuroscience and Director of the Synaptic Biology Center at Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University). "This molecule is the only molecule we know of that can both repel and connect synapses."

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180503142833.htm

Yu-Ting Mao, Julia X. Zhu, Kenji Hanamura, Giuliano Iurilli, Sandeep Robert Datta, Matthew B. Dalva. Filopodia Conduct Target Selection in Cortical Neurons Using Differences in Signal Kinetics of a Single Kinase. Neuron, 2018; DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2018.04.011


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  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday May 08 2018, @03:18PM

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday May 08 2018, @03:18PM (#677043) Journal

    You do know that "wew lad" thing is a signalling market for the alt-right and "traditional values" (read: "burn anyone who doesn't think like me") types, right?

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
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