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#neurons

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Ele Willoughby, PhD

After moving to Barcelona, he learned Golgi’s method, which employed potassium dichromate & silver nitrate to randomly stain a few #neurons a dark black color, while the other cells remain transparent. He improved upon the method, & used it to investigate the central nervous system, which would otherwise be too densely intertwined for standard microscopic inspection. He made made extensive, detailed & beautiful illustrations of neural material for many species & 🧵4/5

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Soh Kam Yung

200,000 brain cells in a volume of 1 cubic mm.

"Researchers have created the largest and most detailed wiring diagram of a mammalian brain to date, by mapping cells in a cubic millimetre of a mouse’s brain tissue. In a landmark achievement, the diagram also details the activity of individual neurons on a large scale ― a neuroscience first."

nature.com/articles/d41586-025

www.nature.comBiggest brain map ever details huge number of neurons and their activity3D reconstruction is the first to overlay neuronal activity on a large-scale map of brain cells.
#NeuroScience#Neurons#Brain
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Benjamin Carr, Ph.D. 👨🏻‍💻🧬

#Frogfish reveals how it evolved the “fishing rod” on its head
Frogfish belong to the #anglerfish family known as Antennariidae. Like their anglerfish cousins who lurk in the #ocean’s depths, these ambush predators attract their next meal via an appendage on their heads that they use like a fishing lure. Specialized #neurons have evolved to make the "bait" wiggle like #prey.
arstechnica.com/science/2024/1

Ars Technica · Frogfish reveals how it evolved the “fishing rod” on its headBy Elizabeth Rayne
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Albert Cardona

@SciMag @news-from-science-SciMag

A major criticism is that the technique of high-pressure freezing only handles very small volumes at most 200 micrometers thick, and therefore, the tissue being from a mouse brain, a significant amount of injury to neuronal arbours was caused to generate such small samples.

Three kinds of samples were used:
(1) Cell culture neurons, which have their own problems and can't be considered authoritative on neuronal morphology.
(2) Hippocampal slices, which do recover from sectioning when in the right culture medium but only to some extent. Most neurons exist as fragments in the slice. Artifacts in morphologies are expected.
(3) Acutely extracted brain bits can't be immediately frozen; even a second is enough for neurons to fire and osmolarity to shape neuronal morphologies away from the natural state.

In summary: while surely neurons in their natural state don't look like those in textbooks, since all sample preparations suffer from artifacts, I am not convinced that this study resolves the issue. Try to freeze a small animal – like it's been done for C. elegans. Do these peculiar axon morphologies exist in the HFP'ed worm?

The authors themselves admit that:
"treatments that disrupt these parameters like hyper- or hypo-tonic solutions, cholesterol removal, and non-muscle myosin II inhibition all alter the degree of axon pearling" – and all of these come into play during sample preparation.

Preprint: biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/20

As published: nature.com/articles/s41593-024

I wish the reviews were published. Andreas Prokop, a neuroscientist working on microtubules in neurons, was involved, which is reassuring.

bioRxiv · Membrane mechanics dictate axonal morphology and functionAxons are thought to be ultrathin membrane cables of a relatively uniform diameter, designed to conduct electrical signals, or action potentials. Here, we demonstrate that unmyelinated axons are not simple cylindrical tubes. Rather, axons have nanoscopic boutons repeatedly along their length interspersed with a thin cable with a diameter of ∼60 nm like pearls-on-a-string. These boutons are only ∼200 nm in diameter and do not have synaptic contacts or a cluster of synaptic vesicles, hence non-synaptic. Our in silico modeling suggests that axon pearling can be explained by the mechanical properties of the membrane including the bending modulus and tension. Consistent with modeling predictions, treatments that disrupt these parameters like hyper- or hypo-tonic solutions, cholesterol removal, and non-muscle myosin II inhibition all alter the degree of axon pearling, suggesting that axon morphology is indeed determined by the membrane mechanics. Intriguingly, neuronal activity modulates the cholesterol level of plasma membrane, leading to shrinkage of axon pearls. Consequently, the conduction velocity of action potentials becomes slower. These data reveal that biophysical forces dictate axon morphology and function and that modulation of membrane mechanics likely underlies plasticity of unmyelinated axons. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
#neuroscience#morphology#neurons
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swachter

I just finished this up today and I'm *delighted* by how it turned out. I added a tasteful number of aurora rhinestone rivets to the flap to represent neuron signaling (also because my aesthetic sense has not evolved even a tiny bit since I was an Irish dance-obsessed middle schooler). Rainbow hardware (because of course) and pockets galore inside and out.

I'll have this bad girl for sale this Sunday at the Somerville Flea at the Armory or online at rhymes-with-doctor.myshopify.c

Surface pattern design by Sumana Mahata (spoonflower.com/profiles/hodge) / bag design by me.

A royal blue messenger bag with cream-colored cotton straps and lavender plastic buckles is in the foreground, with out of focus library shelves in the background. The bag is printed with a very bright pattern of neurons in various highlighter-type colors (orange, bright green, pink, purple, blue). There is a zippered pocket running between the two satchel straps with a hot pink zipper. An exterior side pocket in the same neuron fabric is on both sides. There is a stack of three neurology-related library books in front of the bag.
A view of the back of the bag, showing the neuron fabric creating a deep rear pocket. A library book is in the pocket.
A photograph of the under-flap area, showing a deep cargo pocket that closes with a royal blue flap and hot pink snap, with the body of the pocket in the same neuron fabric. There is also a deep slip pocket in royal blue canvas with several slots for pens and similar. A maker's label in the top right corner of the pocket reads "Sarah Wachter Designs / Handmade in Somerville."
A photograph of the inside of the bag, showing four deep cargo pockets in pale grey-khaki canvas, all closing with a flap and hot pink plastic snap.
#sewing#handmade#handmadebags
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The Krononaut Moon Project 🌑

 
Consciousness Might Hide in Our #Brain’s Electric Fields

A mysterious #electromagnetic mechanism may be more important than the firing of #neurons in our brain to explain our awareness.

❛❛ “ephaptic” field effects may really be the primary mechanism for consciousness and cognition. ❜❜

🔗 scientificamerican.com/article 2024 Nov 08
🔗 Wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephaptic_co #ephatic
🔗 Wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousne #consciousness

Scientific AmericanConsciousness Might Hide in Our Brain’s Electric FieldsA mysterious electromagnetic mechanism may be more important than the firing of neurons in our brain to explain our awareness
#Community#TimeTravel#Research
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Cosmic Librarian

When muscles work out, they help neurons to grow, a new study shows
The findings suggest that biochemical and physical effects of exercise could help heal nerves.
Now, MIT engineers have found that exercise can also have benefits at the level of individual neurons. They observed that when muscles contract during exercise, they release a soup of biochemical signals called myokines. In the presence of these muscle-generated signals, neurons grew four times farther compared to neurons that were not exposed to myokines. These cellular-level experiments suggest that exercise can have a significant biochemical effect on nerve growth.

#exercise #neuroscience #health #Medicine #neurons

news.mit.edu/2024/when-muscles

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyWhen muscles work out, they help neurons to grow, a new study showsBy Jennifer Chu | MIT News
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Global Museum

The first complete map of every #neuron in an adult fly #brain

The first wiring diagram of every neuron in an adult brain and the 50 million connections between them has been produced for a fruit fly.

The researchers say the whole fly brain map is a key first step to completing larger brains. Since the fruit fly is a common tool in research, its brain map can be used to advance our understanding of how neural circuits work. #flies #science #insects #brains #Neurons

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