The brain has a superpower; neuroplasticity. Everyone’s brain has a unique neuroplasticity of their own kind. What is so incredible about it, is that it gives an adaptable potential to the brain itself, leading to limitless capabilities.
The neurones and neural networks in the brain change, to form complex connections, this is a responsive action when learning something new, stimulation to sensory senses, embryological development, injury or dysfunction. Also known as cortical plasticity, it involves changing and reorganising the cellular networks of the brain, enabling us to carry out a specific action. The two most common mechanisms are axons sprouting-formation of new connections and synaptic pruning which is the elimination of the synapses.
It is crucial for learning and formation of new memory. Study of this area of the brain still intrigues scientists to this day. There are still many questions left. A collaborative effort of study by the Harvard Medical School, the University of Trento, and the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) explored the role of cartilage, play a part in activity-dependent plasticity in mice. Chrondriotin sulphates is the type of cartilage studied here. They have an essential role in plasticity occurrence in the brain’s extracellular matrix.
University of Trento professor, Yuri Bozzi, is a senior co-author. In 2017, Gabriele Chelini, a post doctoral fellow and a key author of the study was put into the group. Now, there is a new thought of approaching the events of neuroplasticity, that different neurones give rise to clusters of synapses, and the response that is given, is as a unit, targeting the memory and learning processes. Three laboratories worked collectively for the publishing of this data. This study is published in the 2024 Cell journal.
Nivea Vaz
Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara
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