Researchers goes to the bottom of the brain
Swedish researchers have recently got new and deeper knowledge about the smallest part of the brain, the granule cells.
The researchers Fredrik Bengtsson and Henrik Jörntell at the Department of Medicine have studied the so called granule cells. These are the smallest cells in the brain, functioning as intermediary between the skin and the little brain.
The cerebellum, or little brain , is a brain region that plays an important role in the integration of sensory perception, coordination and motor control. In order to coordinate motor control, there are many neural pathways linking the cerebellum with the cerebral motor cortex, sending information to the muscles causing them to move.
It is previously well-known that the brain uses short electrical signals to communicate, and that new electrical signals are produced regularly, in a way that is unique for each cell. What is new in this study is that the researchers have described how the brain’s granule cells recieve and integrate the sensory information fromthe skin and take the information to the little brain, on a very detailed level.
