Date:11/17/2008

ed to exist, despite the fact that the blockade was abolished ", project leader Mark Hbener explains. Everything seems to point to the fact that synapses are only disabled, but not physically removed. "Since an experience that has been made may occur again at a later point in time, the brain apparently opts to save a few appendages for a rainy day", Hbener continues. And true enough, when the same eye was later inactivated again, the nerve cells reorganized themselves much more quickly - because they could make use of the appendages that had stayed in place.

Useful reactivation

Many of the appendages that develop between nerve cells are thus maintained and facilitate later relearning. This insight is crucial to our understanding of the fundamental processes of learning and memory. And so, even after many years of abstinence, it should be no great problem if we want to have a go at skiing again this winter.

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Contact: Dr. Mark Huebener mark@neuro.mpg.de Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Source:Eurekalert

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