Science: How does the brain get old? Five billion brain cell connection points reveal life-long changes in the brain.

A team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh, UK, recently presented an amazing set of brain images in science, a leading academic journal.these images depict the details of 5 billion nerve cell junctions in the whole brain of mice at different ages throughout their lives.scientists believe that this map will provide clues to brain aging, reveal how memory is affected by age, and provide insights into learning disabilities and dementia.the "protagonists" in these brain images are called synapses. They are important connection points between nerve cells, transmitting electrical and chemical signals, forming the neural circuit of the brain.the innate behavior and acquired learning behavior of animals are controlled by the molecular composition of synapses.synaptic changes are the basis of memory formation and storage. Synaptic damage is known to be associated with more than 130 brain diseases.in this work, researchers analyzed the molecular and morphological diversity of excitatory synapses in the whole brain of mice from birth to adulthood and then to old age at the resolution of a single synapse, and compared how the synapses in different brain regions changed in the main mouse birth stages."the brain is the most complex thing we know, and understanding it at this level of detail is a major step forward."Professor Seth grant of the University of Edinburgh clinical brain science center, who led the study, said.} different synaptic molecules were marked with different colors on brain slices (photo source: reference [3]) a whole brain cross-section of adult mice, with different color dots showing synaptic diversity (photo source: reference [2]; Credit: Seth grant University of) Edinburgh) the researchers used different fluorescent markers to label the proteins expressed in synapses, so as to distinguish the molecular composition of different synapses and the number of different types of synapses.it can be seen from the images that the synaptic composition of all regions of the brain changes continuously throughout the whole life.in the brain of adult mice, the color of images is the most abundant, which means the diversity of synapses is the greatest.in contrast, the number and complexity of synapses in very young and very old brains are much smaller.} in the brain of adult mice (above), the types of synapses are more abundant; in the brains of young mice (below), the diversity of synapses is low (photo sources: research materials [2]; Credit: Seth grant University of) Edinburgh) researchers at the University of Edinburgh point out that through the spatiotemporal changes in the composition of these synapses, we can explore why genes cause synaptic damage at a specific age and in specific brain regions.schizophrenia often begins in adolescence, and dementia usually affects the elderly. "We believe these findings will help to understand why the brain is vulnerable to specific diseases at different times of life and how the large brain changes with age."said Professor Grant.references [1] m é Lissa cizeron et al., (2020) a brain wide Atlas of synapses across the mouse lifespan. Science. Doi: 10.1126/ science.aba3163  [2] Clues to ageing come to light in vivid snapshots of brain cell links. Retrieved Jun 12, 2020, from