Neuroscience

Uncovering how immune cells nurture brain connections

Microglia, the immune cells of the brain, are known for eating up unwanted items like germs and debris, much as their counterparts do in the rest of the body. In early childhood, certain microglia remove unneeded connections, ...

Neuroscience

Next-generation tissue expansion method improves neural imaging

The glory of tissue expansion technologies is that when structures, such as proteins that build nerve cell connections, are too small for a microscope to resolve, clever chemistry can make everything bigger and easier to ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Star cells in the brain render memory flexible

As we live in a dynamically changing environment, it is important for our brain to not only learn new things but also to modify existing memories. This is commonly referred to as "cognitive flexibility." Without this ability, ...

Neuroscience

Call-and-response circuit tells neurons when to grow synapses

Brain cells called astrocytes play a key role in helping neurons develop and function properly, but there's still a lot scientists don't understand about how astrocytes perform these important jobs. Now, a team of scientists ...

Neuroscience

How an enriched environment fires up our synapses

Processing of sensory impressions and information depends very much on how the synapses in our brain work. A team around chemist Robert Ahrends from the University of Vienna and neuroscientist Michael R. Kreutz from Leibniz ...

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