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A neuron the size of a brain

28.02.2017

To understand how the brain works, we need to know what its neural circuits look like, how neurons connect to each other. And for this you need to know what each individual neuron looks like with all its processes - the axon and dendrites. The task is extremely difficult, especially if it is solved by the usual neurobiological methods.

One of these methods looks like this: dye is injected into a neuron, which spreads along its axon and dendrites, and then the brain is “chopped” into very thin sections, checking where the dye went. Given that neuronal processes often branch strongly and spread over long distances, it is not always possible to trace them to the end.

Recently, however, neuroscientists have been inventing new ways to do this task, more reliable and less laborious, and one of these methods was invented by the research group of Christoph Koch, president of the Allen Brain Institute. Genes for fluorescent proteins were introduced into mice by genetic engineering, and the genes were equipped with a regulator that turned them on in response to the appearance of a certain substance.

When the substance was fed to animals, the genes for luminous proteins woke up, but not everywhere, but only in some neurons of a special brain area called the fence. As a result, nerve cells in mice began to glow along all their processes (fluorescent proteins gradually spread throughout the neuron), and since there were few such cells, they were very easy to distinguish in the thickness of the brain. The advantage of the new method is that it allows you to completely stain living neurons without surgical intervention.

Ten thousand sections made of brain tissue, appropriately processed on a computer, made it possible to make a three-dimensional map of the three neurons of the fence. It turned out that, although they are called fence neurons, their processes extend far into both hemispheres, and one of the neurons encircles the entire brain like a crown.

According to Christoph Koch himself, until now, neuroscientists have not come across anything like this. Of course, both mice and humans and other animals have very long neurons - for example, in the legs, in which the neuronal process can stretch through the entire limb, or in the brainstem, whose nerve cells run through the entire brain. However, fence neurons have an important difference - they are in contact with most parts of the brain that control behavior and analyze sensory information.

From experiments on tomographic brain scanning, it is known that the fence maintains a lot of contacts with the rest of the brain, and although it belongs to the subcortical structures, many believe that it plays a key role in the functioning of consciousness (the first idea was put forward by Francis Crick and Christoph Koch in the mid 2000s). However, until now, no one has considered in detail how its neurons are arranged.

The new data certainly confirms what we know about the fence and its extensive connections to the rest of the brain. It is in many ways easier to study than other nerve centers, not least because there are not very many different types of neurons in the enclosure.

In the near future, probably, neuroscientists will try to trace its other cells in a similar way - and then it will be possible to say, for example, whether different neurons of the fence go to different areas, or whether their processes are grouped within several of the same routes.

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