Synaptic pruning is a little like sleep. We know both processes are important to healthy brain function, but we don't know exactly how they happen, nor how to reliably treat problems in the system.

Research led by SUNY Downstate Medical Center has identified a brain receptor that appears to initiate adolescent synaptic pruning, a process believed necessary for learning, but one that appears to ...

An analysis of how synaptic proteins change during early development reveals differences between mice and marmosets but also what's different in individuals with autism spectrum disorders. The ...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition in which affected individuals experience difficulties in social communication and exhibit restricted, repetitive patterns of ...

In the Alzheimer’s disease brain, synaptic loss correlates with cognitive decline, and is considered a sign of disease progression. But is synaptic loss always bad? Provocative new data from several ...

Welcome back to Birdbrained Science! Last time, we touched on the ‘bird’ aspect with migration and today, we’ll cover some brain stuff — let’s talk about pruning. However it happens, we know that once ...