News Neuroscience

Adult mouse brains are teeming with ‘silent synapses’

The finding could help explain how the brain keeps making new memories while retaining old ones

An illustration of a nerve cell with extensions branching out to create connections called synapses.

Extensions branch out of a nerve cell (illustrated) to create connections called synapses. Inactive, or silent, synapses, now found in adult mice, may be important for forming new memories, new research suggests.

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By Claudia López Lloreda

- More than 2 years ago

Learning lots of new information as a baby requires a pool of ready-to-go, immature connections between nerve cells to form memories quickly.