MIT Study May Explain How Adult Brains Create New Memories
Neuroscience discoveries of the biological brain are important not only because they may lead to novel therapeutics to treat brain disorders, but also because they may serve as models for artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning.
“Silent synapses are abundant in early development, during which they mediate circuit formation and refinement, but they are thought to be scarce in adulthood,” wrote the researchers at the Harnett Lab at MIT. “However, adults retain a capacity for neural plasticity and flexible learning that suggests that the formation of new connections is still prevalent.”
This new study demonstrates that roughly 30 percent of all synapses in the brain’s cortex of adult mice are silent, according to MIT.
Synapses are where the brain cells or neurons connect and communicate with each other. A single neuron can have between a few to hundreds of thousands of synaptic connections.
Neurons have a main body with strands. The transmitting neuron uses a thin strand called an axon to send signals. When an electrical signal or action potential passes down an axon, its tip releases a chemical signal called a neurotransmitter into the synapse. Depending on the neurotransmitter, the receiving neuron may activate an electrical charge to signal another neuron or not fire a charge. The receiving neuron can receive via its main body or tree-like branches called dendrites.
These filopodia had neurotransmitter receptors that were missing AMPA receptors which are needed for synapses to pass along an electrical current. AMPA receptors are a type of glutamate receptors that mediate rapid excitatory synaptic transmission and play a key role in synaptic plasticity.
To test if the discovered filopodia are silent synapses, the neuroscientists deployed a modified patch-clamp method which involves administering a voltage through the cell membrane in order to measure the resulting current.
“These results challenge the model that functional connectivity is largely fixed in the adult cortex and demonstrate a new mechanism for flexible control of synaptic wiring that expands the learning capabilities of the mature brain,” the MIT researchers concluded.
What are your thoughts on neuroplasticity and recovery?
#Neuroscience #Memories #AI
Thank you for sharing this great article with us here. It was a great read and to learn about the subject.