The Stanford team used brain samples from a mouse that had been bioengineered so that particularly large neurons that abound in the cerebral cortex express a fluorescent protein, normally found in jellyfish, that glows yellowish-green. This let them visualize synapses against the background of the neurons they linked. The researchers were able to "travel" through the resulting 3-D mosaic and observe different colors corresponding to different synaptic types just as a voyager might transit outer space and note the different hues of the stars dotting the infinite blackness.
A movie was also created by this software. This level of detailed visualization has never been achieved before, Smith said. You know right where each one is, and what kind it is," he said. Observed in this manner, the brain's overall complexity is almost beyond belief, said Smith. In fact, one synapse may contain on the order of 1, molecular-scale switches. A single human brain has more switches than all the computers and routers and Internet connections on Earth," he said.
In the course of the study, whose primary purpose was to showcase the new technique's application to neuroscience, Smith and his colleagues discovered some novel, fine distinctions within a class of synapses previously assumed to be identical. His group is now focused on using array tomography to tease out more such distinctions, which should accelerate neuroscientists' progress in, for example, identifying how many of which subtypes are gained or lost during the learning process, after an experience such as traumatic pain, or in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's.
With support from the National Institutes of Health, Smith's lab is using array tomography to examine tissue samples from Alzheimer's brains obtained from Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania.
He and Micheva are founding a company that is now gathering investor funding for further work along these lines. Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing has obtained one U. George A. Materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center. Original written by Bruce Goldman. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Science News. Journal Reference : Kristina D. Ask Question. Asked 7 years, 3 months ago. Active 2 years, 7 months ago.
Viewed 4k times. Improve this question. Nick Stauner 9, 2 2 gold badges 22 22 silver badges 53 53 bronze badges. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. This is what I'm reading everywhere human-memory. Also, if you have a solid reference from a research article using stereology, please feel free to include it. The numbers bandied around are usually just orders of magnitude i. Interesting TED talk about it , too.
We ask answers to be backed up by credible sources, preferably journal papers. The neocortex is not just "sight and hearing", but also taste, touch, smell, motor control, movement planning, speech, and many many more.
Neurons don't perform an "operation" times per second, with any meaningful comparison to a CPU's operations. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options.
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