News tagged with synapses
Combating mood disorders: New approach simplifies the search for more specific drugs
Many psychiatric conditions are caused by aberrant metabolism of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Researchers in the Department of Pharmacy at LMU have now developed a new screening method, which will facilitate the search ...
Sep 30, 2011 |
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Synthetic synapse mimics dynamic memory in human brain
Researchers from UCLA and Japan have designed a synthetic synapse for use in computing equipment that mimics the function of synapses in the human brain. The silver sulfide, nanoscale synapse, or "atomic switch," demonstrates ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Jul 22, 2011 |
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Memristors: 'Computer synapse' analyzed at the nanoscale
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Hewlett Packard and the University of California, Santa Barbara, have analysed in unprecedented detail the physical and chemical properties of an electronic device that computer ...
May 16, 2011 |
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Gene linked to severity of autism's social dysfunction
With the help of two sets of brothers with autism, Johns Hopkins scientists have identified a gene associated with autism that appears to be linked very specifically to the severity of social interaction deficits.
Apr 06, 2011 |
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Skywalker ensures optimal communication between neurons
Patrik Verstreken (VIB/K.U.Leuven, Belgium) has discovered the mechanism that ensures neurons can continue to send the right signals for long consecutive periods - a process that is disrupted in neurological diseases such ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Apr 01, 2011 |
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Human embryonic stem cells provide new insight into muscular dystrophy
Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is the most common inherited muscular dystrophy in adults. New research published by Cell Press online on March 31st in the journal Cell Stem Cell, uses human embryonic stem cells to make a ...
Mar 31, 2011 |
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New insight into how environmental enrichment enhances memory
It is well established that environmental enrichment, providing animals with rich sensory, motor, and social stimulation, produces both dramatic increases in the number of synapses in the brain and enhanced learning. However, ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Mar 23, 2011 |
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Major clue in long-term memory making discovered
You may remember the color of your loved one's eyes for years. But how?
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Mar 20, 2011 |
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Tau-induced memory loss in Alzheimer's mice is reversible
Amyloid-beta and tau protein deposits in the brain are characteristic features of Alzheimer disease. The effect on the hippocampus, the area of the brain that plays a central role in learning and memory, is ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Feb 16, 2011 |
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A mental retardation gene provides insights into brain formation (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have uncovered clues to memory and learning by exploring the function of a single gene that governs how neurons form new connections. The finding may also provide ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Feb 15, 2011 |
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Dendritic branch is preferred integrative unit for protein synthesis-dependent LTP
Neuroscientists at MIT's Picower Institute of Learning and Memory have uncovered why relatively minor details of an episode are sometimes inexplicably linked to long-term memories. The work, slated to appear in the Jan. 13, ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Jan 19, 2011 |
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Brain changes in adolescent males shown in new research
Every parent knows that teenagers, who undergo changes in hormones during puberty, are often fraught with drama.
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Jan 19, 2011 |
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Study identifies new therapies for prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease
A Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute (BRNI) study published today in the Journal of Neuroscience reveals underlying causes for the degeneration of synapses in Alzheimer's Disease and identifies promising pharma ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Jan 12, 2011 |
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The genetic basis of 130 brain diseases
In research published today, scientists have studied human brain samples to isolate a set of proteins that accounts for over 130 brain diseases. The paper also shows an intriguing link between diseases and the evolution of ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Dec 19, 2010 |
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Fewer synapses equal more efficient learning
(PhysOrg.com) -- Neurons exchange information via special connections, the synapses. New synapses are constantly being formed, existing synapses are reinforced and redundant synapses are eliminated. Scientists ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Dec 09, 2010 |
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Chemical synapse
Chemical synapses are specialized junctions through which neurons signal to each other and to non-neuronal cells such as those in muscles or glands. Chemical synapses allow neurons to form circuits within the central nervous system. They are crucial to the biological computations that underlie perception and thought. They allow the nervous system to connect to and control other systems of the body.
The adult human brain is estimated to contain from 1014 to 5 × 1014 (100-500 trillion) synapses.[citation needed] Each mm3 of cerebral cortex contains roughly a billion of them.
The word "synapse" comes from "synaptein", which Sir Charles Scott Sherrington and colleagues coined from the Greek "syn-" ("together") and "haptein" ("to clasp"). Chemical synapses are not the only type of biological synapse: electrical and immunological synapses also exist. Without a qualifier, however, "synapse" commonly means chemical synapse.
For more information about Chemical synapse, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
