For the study, scientists photographed mouse brain cells using an electron microscope after flash-freezing the cells in the act of firing nerve signals. The special photographs showed that the tiny vesicles are recycled to form new bubbles only one-tenth of a second after they dump their cargo of
neurotransmitters into the gap or "synapse" between two nerve cells or neurons.
To explain the importance of this process, the research group have pointed out that without recycling these containers or 'synaptic vesicles' filled with neurotransmitters, you could move once and stop, think one thought and stop, take one step and stop, and speak one word and stop. Instead, a fast nervous system allows us to think and move.
To give an idea of the speed and complexity, the research group point out that one brain cell maintains a supply of 300 to 400 vesicles to send chemical nerve signals, using up to several hundred per second to release neurotransmitters.
The study was carried out by University of Utah scientists and German biologists. The findings have been
published in
Nature in a paper titled “Ultrafast endocytosis at mouse hippocampal synapses”.
