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 ...

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 ...

An analysis of how synaptic proteins change during early development reveals differences between mice and marmosets but also what's different in individuals with autism spectrum disorders. The ...

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 ...

Figure 1. To observe dynamically changing synapses, dimerization-dependent fluorescent protein (ddFP) was expressed to observe flourescent signals upon synapse formation as ddFP enables fluorescence ...

Receptors on the postsynaptic membrane determines whether the signal received is: However, a series of weak stimuli can combine, increasing the amount of neurotransmitter that is released. This ...

Hailed as one of the most important medical advances, the discovery of general anesthetics – compounds which induce unconsciousness, prevent control of movement and block pain – helped transform ...