Scientists from Heidelberg, Mannheim and Bonn discover a new
shape of neurons that allows signals to be propagated via a shortcut (September
2014).
Nerve cells communicate by using electrical signals. Via
widely ramified cell structures—the
dendrites—, they receive signals from other neurons and then transmit
them over a thin cell extension—the axon—to other nerve cells. Axon and
dendrites are usually interconnected by the neuron’s cell body. A team of
scientists at the Bernstein Center Heidelberg-Mannheim, Heidelberg University,
and the University of Bonn has now discovered neurons in which the axon arises
directly from one of the dendrites. Similar to taking a bypass road, the signal
transmission is thus facilitated within the cell.