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Nature 423, 931-932 (26 June 2003) | doi:10.1038/423931a
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Neurobiology: Synapses unplugged
J. Troy Littleton & Morgan Sheng
Abstract
At the junctions between two neurons, the machinery that releases neurotransmitter from one cell must lie near calcium channels and align with detectors in the receiving cell. We now have a better idea how this occurs.
The computational power of the brain depends on the precise connections, or synapses, that link together the many billions of nerve cells. On page 939 of this issue, Missler and colleagues1 describe their studies of how the neurexin family of proteins contributes to synapses in vivo.
- J. Troy Littleton and Morgan Sheng are in the Departments of Biology, and of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Picower Center for Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Correspondence to: J. Troy Littleton e-mail: Email: troy@mit.edu
Correspondence to: Morgan Sheng e-mail: Email: msheng@mit.edu
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