![]() ![]() "You can't approach the dendrite from any direction. "Attaching the pipette to a dendrite is tremendously technically challenging," Smith said. To find out, Smith and his colleagues attached tiny glass pipes known as pipettes to dendrites in areas of the mouse brain responsible for processing data from the eyes. ![]() It was unclear whether normal brain activity involved dendritic spikes, and if so, what role they might play. However, prior research discovered many of the same molecules that support electrical spikes are also present in the dendrites, and experiments with brain tissue showed dendrites can use these molecules to generate these spikes themselves. "Suddenly, it's as if the processing power of the brain is much greater than we had originally thought," study lead author Spencer Smith, a neuroscientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in a statement.Īxons are what neurons conventionally use to generate spikes of electricity. Now scientists find dendrites may be more than passive wiring in fact, they may actively process information. ![]() The heart of each neuron is called the soma - a single thin cablelike fiber known as the axon that sticks out of the soma carries nerve signals away from the neuron, while many shorter branches called dendrites that project from the other end of the soma carry nerve signals to the neuron. Neurons each act like a relay station for electrical signals. ![]()
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