How Do Memories Form? Our Brains May Be More Powerful Than Previously Thought

The brains of almost all animals contain a network of crisscrossing nerve cells, also known as neurons. Each nerve cell consist of three main parts -- the soma (cell body), an elongated axon, and several branching dendrites. For the longest time, scientists believe that the somas were the only regions in neurons that generated electrical spikes in order to connect and communicate with other neurons, and that the dendrites were just passive conduits of these pulses. However, according to a study published in the latest edition of the journal Science, this model of how neurons function may not be entirely accurate. The study on lab rats, carried out by a team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), reveals that dendrites are electrically active in animals that are moving around freely and that these structures generate nearly 10 times more spikes than somas.