[url]http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/new-type-of-brain-cell-discovered/article6442264.ece[/url]
[quote]Researchers have discovered a strange new type of brain cell that sends signals by bypassing the cell body altogether.
Neurons come in different shapes and sizes but the basic blueprint consists of a cell body, from which protrudes spindly appendages called dendrites and axons.
Dendrites are branchlike structures that receive signals from other nerve cells and deliver them to the cell body.
The neuron then processes the signals and zaps along information to the next cell via a long projection called the axon.
The newly discovered cells, however, have a different, and until now, unknown process. In these cells, the signals skip the cell body altogether, instead travelling along an axon that projects directly from one of the dendrites.
“We found that in more than half of the cells, the axon does not emerge from the cell body, but arises from a lower dendrite,” said study researcher Christian Thome, a neuroscientist at Heidelberg University and the Bernstein Center Heidelberg-Mannheim.
The new cells were discovered in the hippocampus of a mouse. Humans have the same general brain structure and types of hippocampus cells as mice.[/quote]
I wonder if this could be cannibalized for some other scientific applications.
Shit man. Do you happen to have the original article? My first intuition is that these sorts of structures might function as signal boosters
[URL="http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(14)00688-6"]Found it[/URL] and they are. That's pretty neat.
[url]http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627314006886[/url]
However it's behind a paywall.
Here's the press release: [url]http://www3.uni-bonn.de/Press-releases/communication-without-detours[/url]
[QUOTE=1legmidget;46075142]Shit man. Do you happen to have the original article? My first intuition is that these sorts of structures might function as signal boosters[/QUOTE]
Forgive my naive thought as I have no experience in neurology, however if these dendrite-axons are infact signal boosters then maybe they play a role in say Alzheimers? Degradation of these signal boosters rendering lack of good memory recollection?
[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;46074118]I wonder if this could be cannibalized for some other scientific applications.[/QUOTE]
what are you, some kind of zombie?
Interesting
I can see how it would work, the cell body generally just produces the neurotransmitters and runs them down the axon. So if it ran them up the dendrites and out a branching axon from there, then the signal wouldn't have to travel as far - completely bypassing the length of the neuron and out only a few tiny units away from where it started.
[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;46075182]Forgive my naive thought as I have no experience in neurology, however if these dendrite-axons are infact signal boosters then maybe they play a role in say Alzheimers? Degradation of these signal boosters rendering lack of good memory recollection?[/QUOTE]
They probably wouldn't have a specific role to play in Alzheimer's; there are three main hypotheses for the development of Alzheimer's, which are genetic, the cholinergic (reduced secretion of acetylcholine in the brain), and the amyloid hypothesis (amyloidosis as the causative agent.) Now there are other causative mechanisms, such as the tau hypothesis (abnormality in the stabilizing protein tau which is responsible for microtubule integrity, microtubules being part of a cell's 'skeleton.')
Only time and more research will tell exactly what these cells are responsible for.
[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;46075181][URL]http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627314006886[/URL]
However it's behind a paywall.
Here's the press release: [URL]http://www3.uni-bonn.de/Press-releases/communication-without-detours[/URL][/QUOTE]
I've got full access through my uni. There's a video abstract with porno music and heavy slavic accents. I might be able to rehost so long as we don't draw too too much attention to it.
EDIT
[URL="https://www.dropbox.com/s/9i73tt98k2lcgad/NeuronVideoAbstract.mp4?dl=0"]Here's a link.[/URL]
PM me if you want more info/content. Not going to post more here so I don't fuck future access up. SD gets kind of bitchy with their most recent articles.
[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;46075182]Forgive my naive thought as I have no experience in neurology, however if these dendrite-axons are infact signal boosters then maybe they play a role in say Alzheimers? Degradation of these signal boosters rendering lack of good memory recollection?[/QUOTE]
Alzheimer's is a degenerative disease overall, so I would theorize that the disease and these neurons are unrelated
[editline]25th September 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE=1legmidget;46075255]I've got full access through my uni. There's a video abstract with porno music and heavy slavic accents. I might be able to rehost so long as we don't draw too too much attention to it.[/QUOTE]
If you rehosted it I would love to share it with my Human Neuropsychology class
Hmm, neurotransmitic terminals in dendritic endings? Sounds interesting! However, it isn't new that signals can bypass the cell body entirely. Axoaxonal transmission is a thing.
[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;46075182]Forgive my naive thought as I have no experience in neurology, however if these dendrite-axons are infact signal boosters then maybe they play a role in say Alzheimers? Degradation of these signal boosters rendering lack of good memory recollection?[/QUOTE]
Alzheimers is when there's a buildup of beta-amyloid proteins which forms a sort of plaque on the cell. This plaque "sticks" to neurons which inhibits their transmission capacity. When a cell isn't used, it dies.
So is it completely coated in myelin from one end to the other?
Can anyone translate this science stuff?
[QUOTE=007JamesBond007;46075694]Can anyone translate this science stuff?[/QUOTE]
Instead of regular brain cells branching out with axons and dendrites, it's just a bunch of axons and dendrites without the cell body itself. Kinda like the 3D pipes screensaver.
[t]http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/extras/image/name/san2/185/334185/original/pipes_background2.png[/t]
Lovely.
[QUOTE=Amiga OS;46076481]How do the current treatments work? I guess chemically dissolving the crap coating the cells is not an option.[/QUOTE]
Currently the only treatment procedures we have is to administer long acting NMDA receptor antagonists (for example, memantine) and acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. They don't cure alzheimers, but they effectively slow the progression of symptoms.
[QUOTE=FurrehFaux;46076551]Currently the only treatment procedures we have is to administer long acting NMDA receptor antagonists (for example, memantine) and acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. They don't cure alzheimers, but they effectively slow the progression of symptoms.[/QUOTE]
Indeed! It is also worth noting that when the first actual signs of alzheimers manifests in the patient, the illness has probably already been progressing for a decade or two [I]at least.[/I]
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