Star-shaped cells in the brain aid with learning
Monday, September 7, 2009 - 12:30
in Biology & Nature
(PhysOrg.com) -- Every movement and every thought requires the passing of specific information between networks of nerve cells. To improve a skill or to learn something new entails more efficient or a greater number of cell contacts. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried could now show, together with an international team of researchers, that certain cells in the brain, the astrocytes, actively influence this information exchange.