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Yale Scientists Explore Basis of Learning
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Business New Haven
11/29/1999
By: Tammy Rachau
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NEW HAVEN - Yale researchers have developed a new method for recording electrical activities within living cells, which could lead to better treatment for diseases like Parkinson's, and provide clues about how learning takes place. Abnormalities of mitochondria - tiny organelles that produce the energy to keep all cells alive - have long been suspected in diseases like Parkinson's. Because of their small size, it has previously been impossible to record the electrical activity of mitochondria in living cells.
The new technique of mitochondrial recording will allow scientists to study parts of cells that were previously inaccessible. The technique, detailed in the November 12 issue of Science, has already led to insights into how changes within neurons may underlie learning and memory. Using the large nerve cells and connections of squid, the scientists devised a form of electrical recording that for the first time allowed them to observe the activity of mitochondria inside the synaptic terminal of a neuron, where information is passed from one neuron to the next.
“The effectiveness of this information transfer can change in time, and it is this kind of change that is thought to underlie learning,” said Elizabeth A. Jones, an investigator on the study who developed the technique.
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