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2 - Discovering Synaptic Pruning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2023

Anna Huttenlocher
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Summary

Peering at thousands of neurons under an electron microscope in the 1970s, Peter sought to understand how the structures through which neurons communicate, known as “synapses,” change during development of the human brain. How are these billions of synapses formed and refined? How do these circuits change, and allow us to remember, and to learn? What happens when these connections go awry and what is their relationship to human disease?

Type
Chapter
Information
From Loss to Memory
Behind the Discovery of Synaptic Pruning
, pp. 5 - 12
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

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Hubel, D. H and Wiesel, T. N.. The period of susceptibility to the physiological effects of unilateral eye closure in kittens. J Physiol 1970; 206(2): 419–36.Google Scholar
Huttenlocher, P. R.. Synaptic and dendritic development and mental defect. UCLA Forum Med Sci 1975; 18: 123–40.Google Scholar
Huttenlocher, P. R., Synaptic density in human frontal cortex: Developmental changes and effects of aging. Brain Res 1979; 163: 195205.Google ScholarPubMed
Sretavan, D. and Shatz, C. J., Prenatal development of individual retinogeniculate axons during the period of segregation. Nature 1984; 308: 845–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hansel, C.. Memory Makes the Brain: The Biological Machinery That Uses Experiences to Shape Individual Brains. World Scientific, 2021.Google Scholar
Walsh., C. A. Huttenlocher, Peter (1931–2013). Nature 2013; 502: 7470.Google Scholar

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