[Source:  Medical Express]

When we learn the connections between neurons strengthen. Addiction or other neurological diseases are linked to abnormally strong connections. But what does learning look like on the cellular and molecular level? How do our cells change when we learn? Using super-resolution live-cell microscopy, researchers at Thomas Jefferson University zoomed into the connections between neurons that strengthen to discover structural changes that had never been seen before.

The research was published April 23rd in Nature Neuroscience.

“Our observations give the field a new way of thinking about how normal learning and the maladaptive learning we see in disorders, such as addiction or autism, might occur,” said Matthew Dalva Professor of Neuroscience at The Vickie and Jack Farber Institute for Neuroscience and Director of the Synaptic Biology Center at Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University).

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