Tag: "dendrites" at biology news

A first -- Hebrew University scientist observes brain cell development in 'real time'

... experimental model to study development of neural dendrites in vivo. The dendrites are the string-like extensions of the neuron that spread out to reach other neurons and serve as the...

Homing pigeons get their bearings from their beaks

...g pigeons. This research project found that these dendrites are arranged in a complex three-dimensional pattern with different spatial orientation designed to analyze the three components of the magnetic field vector separately. They react to the Earth’s external magnetic field in a very sensitive and specif...

Brain works more chaotically than previously thought

...ntially of axons and ancillary cells. There are no dendrites or even synapses here. "So it is not a place where...e synapses," Dietrich speculates. "Nerve cells and dendrites are closely packed together here. So the axon could not only excite the actual receptor but also num...

Sandia researchers discover way to see how a drug attaches to a cell

...y small flat-branched platinum structures - called dendrites - which join together in a network or cage in the ...um salt. Little by little, small, flat, platinum dendrites form within the double lipid layer. "The important thing is to make sure that the number of photoc...

Long-term changes in experience cause neurons to sprout new long-lasting connections

...ust connections between a neuron's highly branched dendrites and nearby axons. Dendrites are the input side of neurons and axons the output side. Spines stipple the surface of dendrites, like twigs from a branch, and form the receiving ends of synapses, which are the junctions between neurons where neurotransm...

Nanowire arrays can detect signals along individual neurons

...ate, and inhibit nerve signals along the axons and dendrites of live mammalian neurons. Harvard chemist Charl...een ultra-fine silicon nanowires and the axons and dendrites projecting from nerve cells: Nanowires, like neuronal offshoots, are just tens of nanometers in widt...

How nerve cells stay in shape

...s. The mRNA for actin is normally transported into dendrites and locally translated into protein there. If there is no Staufen2 to function as a transport protein in the nerve cells, a lesser amount of mRNA makes it to the synapse - this could explain its altered shape. "We wanted to know if Staufen2-deficien...

Tiny RNA molecules fine-tune the brain's synapses

... dendritic spines, the protrusions from a neuron's dendrites where synapses form. When neurons were exposed to miR-134, spine volume significantly decreased, weakening the synapse. When miR-134 was inhibited, spines increased in size, strengthening the synapse. Further experiments showed that miR-134 acts by...

Scientists show how thinking can harm brain cells

...ere impulses pass from neuron to neuron. Injury to dendrites ?characterized by swelling or beading, loss of den...generative diseases. "We found that disease makes dendrites more vulnerable to excitotoxicity," said Matthew J. Bellizzi, a researcher and student in the M.D./P...

How the neuron sprouts its branches

...growth of the intricate tracery of branches called dendrites that enable them to connect with their neighbors. ...ought these remote structures we had discovered in dendrites called Golgi outposts might play a role." The researchers studied the dendritic growth process in p...

RNA splicing occurs in nerve-cell dendrites

...School of Medicine have discovered that nerve-cell dendrites have the capacity to splice messenger RNA (pre-mRN...s successful in showing that splicing can occur in dendrites because they have employed very sensitive technologies developed in their lab, which permits the det...

Investigating 'brain shrinkage' in alcoholics

...orter and more numerous fibres or processes called dendrites with many fine branching processes ?similar to the root system of a tree ?that allow them to 'talk' with neighbouring neurons, often as many as five to 10,000 at a time." Alcohol appears to be particularly damaging to the "white matter" or "hard wir...

Snapin: A protein with therapy potential for autism

...n binds to cypin, tubulin is crowded out, so fewer dendrites assemble and more branching occurs. When research...pocampal neurons in the lab, the number of primary dendrites growing out of the cell body decreased, but many more secondary dendrites branched off them. "This ...

Liposome finding implies electrical effect on cell development

...ed in the development of structures like axons and dendrites in nerve cells. Hayes will present the results of the experiments at a 2 p.m. March 15 session entitled "Colloids in Complex Fluids" at the American Chemical Society meeting in San Diego. In the experiments, the researchers placed liposomes in a dr...

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