|
|
|
|
|
Credit: T. G. Oertner et al., Nature Neurosci. 5, 657 (2002)
|
Advances in optical imaging techniques like two-photon microscopy -- which uses laser pulses of infrared light to penetrate deep within living tissue -- let researchers investigate the lives of individual neurons in unprecedented detail. Karel Svoboda and colleagues, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, have combined this technique with fluorescent dyes sensitive to calcium concentration, to image the release of neurotransmitters at individual working synapses and track their activity (see movie [1.25 MB] posted at the Svoboda Lab Web site). Such real-time studies of neuronal structure and signaling processes will reveal new information about how neural connections are made and broken, and should provide valuable insight into how the brain learns. For more on how scientists are using new imaging techniques to "spy" on individual neurons, see the news article by G. Miller in Science's 4 April 2003 special issue.
|
|
