How nerve cells stay in shape

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Nerve cells with intact synapses. In the microscope synapses from hippocampus nerve cells look like small mushroom-shaped protuberances called dendritic spines. Image: Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology
Nerve cells with intact synapses. In the microscope, synapses from hippocampus nerve cells look like small, mushroom-shaped protuberances called dendritic spines. Image: Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology

Nerve cells store and transmit information via special contact sites called synapses. Synapses also play a role in determining what we remember and what we forget. When we learn, both the structure and the functional characteristics of these contact sites change. Scientists are only now beginning to understand the molecular processes which cause that change.


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