Bad wirings in baby brains get corrected themselves

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Bad wirings in baby brains get corrected themselves

Scientists have identified a protein that plays a vital role in forming the

right kind of connections among neuronal cells in the brain of newborn mice, a

finding they claim could shed light on neurological disorders such as autism.

In the rapidly developing brain of babies, neurons begin forming connections

with one another, but a startling number can link up to the wrong cells and need

to be pushed back in the right direction.

Now, researchers at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel discovered that a

protein helps neuronal cells in the brain repair errors when they had connected

to the wrong type of cells.

brain

The protein called BMP4, a growth factor that controls bone development, was

found correcting the initial errors in newborn mice's cerebellum, an area of the

brain that controls fine motor skills and emotional processing.

The researchers, who reported their findings in the journal PLoS Biology, said

their work may provide insights into why some young children go on to develop

disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.

For their research, the team led by Scheiffele inserted a fluorescent

protein into the brains of live unborn mice which was taken up by the neurones

and made them glow green under blue light.

This allowed researchers to track how they grew and formed a network during the

first three weeks of life.

They found that fibres coming from the cortex often connected and created nerve

synapses with the wrong type of cell, called a Purkinje cell, in the cerebellum,

when they should have been connecting with granule cells.

But instead of this being a disaster for the growing mouse, those " wrong

connections " were soon rectified and being replaced by " correct connections " in

a process regulated by the BMP4 protein.

" If inappropriate connections between neurons are not subsequently eliminated,

this can lead to substantial disturbances in the brain, " said Dr Scheiffele.

" Autism could also be linked to this form of failure to correct errors, " he

explained.

To test the role of the BMP4 protein, the researchers raised a strain of mouse

that lacks the protein and found that the animals subsequently had more " wrong

connections " , which they could not get rid of.

" These processes can be applied to the development of the human brain and could

play an important role in further brain research, " Scheiffele added.