Brain’s physical structure may help guide its wiring

Stiffness, softness determine if nerve cells’ axons take straight or meandering path

Axons

MAKING CONNECTIONS  Axons (grayish-white strands, center) that form a signal-sending pathway in the visual system grow toward their destination in an embryonic frog brain. 

Eva Pillai

In growing brains, billions of nerve cells must make trillions of precise connections.