Connections between neurons while we think

When we decide to take an immediate physical action, such as the moment before reaching out and pressing a button, a complex process takes place in our brain. Using two-photon microscopy, scientists have managed to observe a key component of this process, visualizing axon terminals (the long, thin structures that emerge from the body of neurons) doing their job. Those terminals appear bright green in the image. This image, obtained using two-photon microscopy, was taken within the framework of a study by a team led by Makoto Ohtake, from the Medical University of South Carolina in the United States, and from Yokohama City University in Japan. The study is titled “Encoding of self-initiated actions in axon terminals of the mesocortical pathway.” And it has been published in the academic journal Neurophotonics. (Fountain: NCYT by Amazings)

(Image: M. Ohtake, K. Abe, M. Hasegawa, T. Itokazu, et al., doi 10.1117/1.NPh.11.3.033408)