Brain cell spines. (Insight).

BRAIN CELL SPINES: Medical researchers believe that the spiny structures protruding from dendrites--the small, branch-like tips of neuron cells that conduct electrical impulses in the human brain--may hold keys to understanding neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. But these odd structures--which change in number, position, size, and shape in response to environmental stimuli--have been difficult to visualize because they're too small to be seen clearly with light microscopes, yet too large to be contained within single electron microscopy sections. To help scientists gain a better understanding of ...