When we learn a new motor skill—whether mastering a piano passage or refining balance while walking—the brain must reorganize the circuits that control movement. For decades, this process of synaptic ...
Researchers at MIT found that roughly a quarter to a third of all synapses in the adult mouse cortex are functionally silent, ...
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — A protein called neuroligin that is implicated in some forms of autism is critical to the construction of a working synapse, locking neurons together like "molecular Velcro," a ...
Picture every synapse in your brain as a phone line. About 70% of them are live, carrying signals right now. But according to research from MIT, the remaining 30% are installed, wired, and ready to ...
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest types of tumors. A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) reports that pancreatic tumors exploit the body's nervous system by forming so-called ...
Co-written with Jai Liester. Silent synapses represent one of neuroscience's most fascinating discoveries—connections between neurons that lie dormant until activated by specific triggers. These ...