Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

The brain contains on the order of 300 trillion connections between its nerve cells, making it one of the most complex systems known. Through these connections, called synapses, nerve cells communicate by exchanging tiny electrical pulses that can either excite or inhibit. Our lab studies how synapses develop in a region of the brain called the hippocampus, which is important in learning and memory. When I blocked excitation in cells from the developing hippocampus, the results indicated that the number of synapses on those cells increased. Although more synapses result in more complexity, this is not necessarily a good thing: abnormally high numbers of synapses onto nerve cells in the hippocampus are associated with some mental disabilities, including Autism spectrum disorders and Fragile-X Syndrome. Thus, investigating our findings will be useful in determining how synapse number is controlled and may also uncover mechanisms that contribute to the development of mental disabilities.