It’s Friday night and you are at a concert, wishing you hadn’t woken up at 4:45am to go to spin class. As the night wears on you get more tired and fall asleep on the train ride home. Why do you get tired the longer you stay awake? It’s not your muscles-- they could keep … Continue reading Too much phosphorylation, time to go to sleep!
Plastic axonal trees
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks…or can you?We’ve all heard about how the brain slows down as we age. We’re constantly losing brain cells. Neurons become “static” and cannot make new connections. Is this true? Are we really doomed to a lifetime of deteriorating mental function?A paper by Oberlaender et al came out … Continue reading Plastic axonal trees
Electrically coupled cells make a connection
Inside our brains are billions of neurons, which communicate to each other via chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are released from one cell and bind to receptors on a neighbor cell, creating a chemical synapse between the two neurons. Precise connections between neurons create microcircuits made up of multiple cells, which are responsible for processing … Continue reading Electrically coupled cells make a connection
Robin Ball 