Fewer synapses equal more efficient learning
Thursday, December 9, 2010 - 10:32
in Biology & Nature
(PhysOrg.com) -- Neurons exchange information via special connections, the synapses. New synapses are constantly being formed, existing synapses are reinforced and redundant synapses are eliminated. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology and the Yale University studied the adhesion protein SynCAM1, which glues synapses together. When they increased the amount of SynCAM1 in neurons, the number of synapses grew.