GABA signaling prunes back copious 'provisional' synapses during neural circuit assembly
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 - 18:00
in Biology & Nature
Quite early in its development, the mammalian brain has all the raw materials on hand to forge complex neural networks. But forming the connections that make these intricate networks so exquisitely functional is a process that occurs one synapse at a time. An important question for neuroscience has been: how exactly do stable synapses form? How do nerve cells of particular types know which of their cortical neighbors to "synapse" with, and which to leave out of their emerging networks?