In the last five years, neuronal pentraxins have emerged as potential markers of synaptic loss. In the case of NPTX2, researchers may now be able to explain why. In the March 29 Science Translational ...

Researchers have shown in mice how immune cells in the brain target and remove unused connections between brain cells during normal development. This research, supported by the National Institutes of ...

Synaptic pruning is the process in which the brain removes neurons and synapses that it does not need. This usually takes place when a person is 2–10 years old. The brain contains millions of neurons ...

A landmark study, based on genetic analysis of nearly 65,000 people, has revealed that a person's risk of schizophrenia is increased if they inherit specific variants in a gene related to "synaptic ...

Researchers led by a group at the Institute of Brain Science, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences and the Nagoya City University School of Medicine report that they have shed ...

The brain is plastic throughout life, but never more so than from birth to young adulthood. It increases its volume by developing dendrites and axons that connect neurons in to each other, forming new ...

A multidisciplinary team of scientists has discovered the mechanism that controls synaptic pruning of new neurons in the adult brain. The team discovered that microglial cells control the number of ...

Welcome back to Birdbrained Science! Last time, we touched on the ‘bird’ aspect with migration and today, we’ll cover some brain stuff — let’s talk about pruning. However it happens, we know that once ...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition in which affected individuals experience difficulties in social communication and exhibit restricted, repetitive patterns of ...