Adolescence is widely thought to be a time when the brain trims away excess neural connections, refining circuits through synaptic pruning. New research now suggests this view may be incomplete.

Synaptic pruning is the process in which the brain removes neurons and synapses that it does not need. This usually takes place when a person is 2–10 years old. The brain contains millions of neurons ...

Synaptic pruning is a crucial neurodevelopmental process through which the brain refines its neural circuitry by systematically eliminating excess or weak synaptic connections. During early childhood ...

Researchers from Kyushu University discovered a previously unrecognized synaptic "hotspot" that forms during adolescence, challenging the long-held view that adolescent brain development was dominated ...

In the Alzheimer’s disease brain, synaptic loss correlates with cognitive decline, and is considered a sign of disease progression. But is synaptic loss always bad? Provocative new data from several ...

Neuroplasticity and development have traditionally focused on synaptic mechanisms as the primary substrates of circuit remodeling. However, recent advances ...

Scientific evidence shows how the cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is caused by the buildup of amyloid beta proteins, which promote synaptic malfunction. One of the neuropathological ...

In the last five years, neuronal pentraxins have emerged as potential markers of synaptic loss. In the case of NPTX2, researchers may now be able to explain why. In the March 29 Science Translational ...

This image shows densely accumulated dendritic spines. Researchers from Kyushu University discovered a previously unrecognized synaptic “hotspot” that forms during adolescence, challenging the ...