Despite being human, there is still a lot about our own bodies we don’t understand, especially when it comes to our brains. And now neurologists have detected a new type of signal occurring between cells and they say it’s the first of its kind.
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00:00Despite being humans, there is still a lot about our own bodies we don't understand,
00:08especially when it comes to our brains. And now neurologists have detected a new type
00:11of signal occurring between cells, and they say it's the first of its kind.
00:16The signals were first noticed a couple of years ago, but more recently doctors were
00:19able to examine brain tissue removed during surgeries, finding that there is a cluster
00:23of cells in the brain's outer cortex that uses calcium to fire neurons, not just the
00:28standard sodium ions. They're now calling these messages calcium-mediated dendritic action
00:33potentials. Action potentials refer to the depolarization that occurs in a neuron,
00:38signaling from one end to the next, and eventually through a synapse onto adjacent nerve cells.
00:42This all happens chemically at the end of each branching dendrite, and the researchers say
00:46this is a key point in unlocking our understanding of the brain's computational power. That's because
00:51dendrites are the gatekeepers of the nervous system, detecting whether or not an action potential is
00:56worth reporting to other parts of the body, with the researchers saying that the outer cortex
01:00is particularly packed with neurons and dendrite branches, and is responsible for high-level functions,
01:06even thought. Meaning, understanding these new signals could help us better understand the
01:10processes of the human brain.