Branching out. Unlike a typical rat neuron (top), the growth of neurons in stressed rats can be impacted by traumatic experiences. Computer models based on McEwen's experiments (bottom) show that when compared to neurons of unstressed rats (blue), neurons from stressed rats (red) often develop either fewer dendritic branches or more, depending on their location in the brain "One of the characteristic manifestations of prolonged stress is decreased performance in tasks that require attention, including the ability to shift focus as well as to learn and unlearn information," notes a recent press release from Rockefeller University.
"Bruce McEwen, Rockefeller’s Alfred E. Mirsky Professor and head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, was interested in finding out how this translates to changes in the brain itself. So he and Conor Liston, a graduate student in McEwen’s lab, compared neuronal change in stressed and unstressed rats."
"Working neuron by neuron, researchers have found that life experiences actually appear to change the length and complexity of individual brain cells ... chronic daily stress affected neurons in two different areas of the rat brain, showing for the first time a link between anxiety symptoms and the dynamic anatomy of the brain."
Thanks go to Nutmeg for alerting me to this Journal of Neuroscience article.
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