In the absence of that protein, other proteins involved in
transmitting signals between neurons in the brain are overproduced, notably mGluR5, a receptor for the neurotransmitter glutamate.
Dopamine, a molecule crucial
for signaling between neurons, can not cross this barrier, which is why its chemical precursor, L - dopa, is used instead to treat Parkinson's disease.
For example, the scientists identified a deletion in one gene called «stargazin» that is required for regulating the transmission
of signals between neurons in the brain.
Electrical
signals between neurons generate electric fields that radiate out of brain tissue as electrical waves that can be picked up by electrodes touching a person's scalp.
Parkinson's disease is caused by the death of neurons in the brain that produce dopamine, a chemical that
shuttles signals between neurons and is responsible for controlling the body's movement.
The discovery that two forms of LTP exist in the ACC, with pre-LTP associated with anxiety and post-LTP associated with pain, explains why these two conditions are linked, as both conditions result in an increase in transmission of the
glutamate signal between neurons in the ACC.
But that is probably not the only route through which neuregulin - 1 confers its benefits, and the group is exploring other possible mechanisms — such as whether the protein
improves signaling between neurons, which is impaired in Alzheimer's — says the study's first author Jiqing Xu, a research associate in Lee's group.
Researchers from Princeton University and the University of California - San Diego (UCSD) recently found that an immune - system protein called MHCI, or major histocompatibility complex class I, moonlights in the nervous system to help regulate the number of synapses, which transmit chemical and
electrical signals between neurons.
According to William Jagust, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, adults are also losing dopamine, a critical neurotransmitter (the type of chemical involved in transmitting
signals between neurons), at the rate of 5 to 8 percent per decade.
Pape is currently analyzing her data to determine if the FAST intervention strengthened the brain's wiring, the elongated fibers called axons that transmit
signals between neurons.
Scientists used to believe that neurotransmitters, chemicals that
signal between neurons, were released in random bursts.
«So we tested the signaling between different neurons in fragile X mice, and indeed found there was abnormally high firing of action potentials —
the signals between neurons — and also abnormally high synchrony; that is, too many neurons fired together.
This was found to interfere with the same mechanism, essentially by impairing the ability of alpha - synuclein to regulate the flow of synaptic vesicles, and hence compromising
the signalling between neurons.
VDACs are present in all neurons, especially the sodium and potassium channels along the axons, which play a fundamental role in the generation of action potential and
signaling between neurons.