In our brains messages are sent via electric current, this isn’t news. What is news is that researchers say they have now identified another way in which brain cells talk to one another.
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00:00In our brains, messages are sent via electric current.
00:07This isn't news.
00:08What is news is that researchers say they have now identified another way in which brain
00:12cells talk to one another.
00:14Researchers found that while previous investigations discovered sodium ions were responsible for
00:18powering electrical signals, which send information through nerve cells, calcium is also sometimes
00:23used by our brains.
00:25Researchers were able to figure this out by first using a sodium blocker on a piece of
00:29surgically removed brain tissue.
00:31Despite the nerve-firing inhibitor being present, they still found messages being sent until
00:35they added a calcium blocker as well.
00:38They're now calling these calcium-mediated dendritic action potentials, and it could
00:41change the way we think about our brain's computational abilities.
00:45Dendrites are essentially the stop and go, yes or no gatekeepers in the brain.
00:49When an action potential in a neuron is strong enough, the dendrites will pass the message
00:53along.
00:54With one of the researchers writing, the dendrites are central to understanding the brain because
00:58they are at the core of what determines the computational power of single neurons.