In the brain, highly specific connections called synapses link nerve cells and transmit electrical signals in a targeted manner. Despite decades of research, how synapses form during brain development ...

Adolescence is widely thought to be a time when the brain trims away excess neural connections, refining circuits through synaptic pruning. New research now suggests this view may be incomplete.

A team of scientists from the University of Cologne's Institute of Biochemistry has made a decisive discovery about the molecular basis of synapse formation in the central nervous system. They studied ...

Expansion microscopy image with synaptic boutons (green) of climbing fibers on a Purkinje cell (blue) from the cerebellum of a mouse. The Institute of Neurosciences (IN), a joint center of the Spanish ...

Researchers from Kyushu University discovered a previously unrecognized synaptic "hotspot" that forms during adolescence, challenging the long-held view that adolescent brain development was dominated ...

Complex protein interactions at synapses are essential for memory formation in our brains, but the mechanisms behind these processes remain poorly understood. Now, researchers have developed a ...

Representative cryo-electron microscopy image: a coloured image of the 3D structure of gephyrin, which was calculated from the data. A team of scientists from the University of Cologne’s Institute of ...

The formation of excitatory and inhibitory synapses between neurons during early development gives rise to the neuronal networks that enable sensory and cognitive functions in humans. Inhibitory ...

Co-written with Jai Liester. Silent synapses represent one of neuroscience's most fascinating discoveries—connections between neurons that lie dormant until activated by specific triggers. These ...

Psychedelics stimulate the growth of synapses outside the brain, scientists show for the first time. Many psychedelics act by binding to serotonin receptor 2. Manor and his team found that these ...