Gallio -- Animated Synapse (video)
Caption
Northwestern University neuroscientists have developed a new tool that lights up active conversations between neurons during a behavior or sensory experience, such as smelling a banana. Much of the computation that happens in the brain occurs at the site of communication between neurons, the synapse (see figure). To create labels that would persistently tag active synapses, the scientists split a fluorescent molecule in half, one half for the talking neuron (pre-) and one half for the listening neuron (post-). When an exchange occurs (i.e. the pre-synaptic neuron 'fires' a message), the two halves come together across the synapse and light up. Moreover, fluorescent molecules of three different colors allow unique labeling of different synapses in the same animal. (Here the three colors are shown at the same synapse for simplicity.)
Credit
Marco Gallio, Northwestern University
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