Song Bird Neurons, Highly Magnified (IMAGE)

Duke University Medical Center

Song Bird Neurons, Highly Magnified

Caption

Neurons (nerve cells) are labeled with green fluorescent protein, and other neurons in the brain are labeled in the background with either red or blue tracers. The small bulbs (i.e., dendritic spines) on the spidery dendrites show places where nerve cells connect and communicate, called synapses, and when these spines shrank over time, this predicted vocal degradation in the songbirds.

Credit

Katie Tschida, Duke Department of Neurobiology

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