Inspiring brains to understand the brain.

Nerve signals

Many nerve fibres are wrapped in myelin, a fatty insulating layer interrupted by small gaps called nodes. The electrical signal jumps from node to node, which is much faster than conduction along a fibre without myelin.

In multiple sclerosis, damage to myelin slows or blocks these signals.

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Synapses and memory

At a chemical synapse the two neurons do not touch. The sending neuron releases a chemical messenger, which the receiving neuron detects; the electrical signal is thus converted into a chemical signal and back again.

Many medicines for pain, depression and Parkinson’s disease act by changing how these messengers are released, detected or cleared.

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Neuroplasticity

Learning changes the connections between neurons. Connections that are repeatedly used together become stronger and can form new contacts, while unused connections weaken.

This capacity persists throughout life and supports recovery after brain injury, which is the basis of practice and rehabilitation.

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Brain rhythms

Large groups of neurons fire together in waves that EEG records from the scalp. The rhythms change with attention, relaxation and sleep, and abnormal rhythms help in the diagnosis of conditions such as epilepsy.

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Glial cells

The brain has roughly as many glial and other support cells as neurons. Astrocytes supply neurons with nutrients and regulate synapses, oligodendrocytes wrap nerve fibres in myelin, and microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells, clear debris.

Glial dysfunction is increasingly linked to conditions ranging from multiple sclerosis to Alzheimer’s disease.

Learn more about glial cells