3D model of a nerve terminal in atomic detail | Mo Costandi | Science. The electrochemical jelly inside your head contains something like one quadrillion synapses, the junctions at which nerve cells talk to one other by converting electrical signals into chemical ones and then back again. They have two components (sometimes three): the nerve terminal of one cell, which stores and releases neurotransmitter molecules, and the 'post-synaptic' membrane of another cell, which contains binding sites for the neurotransmitters. Synapses are miniscule – nerve terminals are about one thousandth of a millimetre in diameter, and the space between them and the membrane they contact a mere 20-40 millionths of a millimetre wide – and are densely packed in the grey matter of the brain tissue, making them notoriously difficult to study.
Inside the nerve terminal, neurotransmitter molecules are stored in tiny spheres called synaptic vesicles, which are "docked" in an "active zone" just beneath the cell membrane. Rizzoli readily acknowledges this. Reference: Wilhelm, B. Human Connectome Project | Gallery. A coronal slice of a diffusion tensor imaging data, each pixel is represented with an ellipsoid glyph depicting water molecule diffusion.
Alternate: HARDI (high-angular resolution diffusion imaging), Coronal view. The tensor can be visualized as an ellipsoid in 3D space, showing fluid mappings and brain connectivity. Image by David Shattuck, PhD. and Paul M. Thompson, PhD.HARDI (high-angular resolution diffusion imaging), Coronal view. The tensor can be visualized as an ellipsoid in 3D space, showing fluid mappings and brain connectivity. Image by David Shattuck, PhD. and Paul M. Thompson, PhD. A sagittal slice of a diffusion tensor imaging data, each pixel is represented with an ellipsoid glyph depicting water molecule diffusion. An axial slice of a diffusion tensor imaging data, each pixel is represented with an ellipsoid glyph depicting water molecule diffusion.
An axial slice of a diffusion tensor imaging dataset set inside a brain surface. Diffusion Tensor Imaging Deformation. Global brain. The Global Brain Institute. Massive Brain Map Should Include Star Cells, Study Says. A huge, federally funded project to map the human brain is incomplete because it ignores some of the brain's star players, a new editorial argues.
The $100 million Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, which is slated to begin in 2014, should map not only neurons, the brain cells that send electrical signals, but also the supportive cells in the brain called glia, according to the editorial published today (Sept. 4) in the journal Nature. "The fact is that the greater mysteries in the brain right now are what the non-neuronal cells are doing," said author Doug Fields, a neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health. "Neurons are only 15 percent of the cells in the brain. " Mysterious purpose Though neurons get the most attention, there are millions of other brain cells that have critical functions. Research has suggested that glia play a role in a host of diseases. Flawed but important.