Neurons in a developing embryo respond to changes in their own electrical activity by altering the types of chemical messengers that they produce, a new study suggests. This finding counters the traditional scientific view that genes alone determine which neurotransmitters a brain cell synthesizes.
A team led by Laura N. Borodinsky and Nicholas C. Spitzer, both of the University of California, San Diego, first measured distinctive patterns of electrical activity in each of four types of embryonic neurons in the spinal cords of frogs.
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