Neurons get connected

摘要

Researchers have devised a way of identifying all the brain cells that connect to one particular brain cell. The technique should help neuroscientists to understand how networks of neurons are wired together. Current 'tracers' can spread through chains of neural connections, but are not specific enough to show just one step of a network. Now Ian Wickersham at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, and his colleagues have modified the rabies virus, a potent tracer, so that it can do just that.