Hidden Variations in Neural Circuits May Explain Differences in TBI Outcomes

A team of researchers at the Neuroscience Institute at Georgia State University has discovered that hidden differences in the properties of neural circuits can account for whether animals are behaviorally susceptible to brain injury. The researchers used a unique research animal, a sea slug called Tritonia diomedea, for the study because unlike humans, it has a small number of neurons and its behavior is simple. Yet, despite this simplicity, the animals varied in how neurons were connected. Under normal conditions, this variability did not matter to the animals’ behavior, but when a major pathway in the brain was severed, some of the animals showed little behavioral deficit, while others could not produce the behavior being studied. Moreover, the researchers could artificially rewire the neural circuit using computer-generated connections and make animals susceptible or invulnerable to the injury. To learn more about this study, recently published in eLife, click here.