SCIENTIFIC EDUCATIONAL CENTER science idea

Neurons communicate with each other using electrical impulses that are produced by ion channels that control the flow of ions such as potassium and sodium. In an unexpected new discovery, neuroscientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have shown that human neurons have a much smaller number of these channels than expected, compared to the neurons of other mammals.
The researchers suggest that this decrease in channel density could help the human brain develop and work more efficiently, allowing it to divert resources to other energy-intensive processes needed to perform complex cognitive tasks.
"If the brain can save energy by reducing the density of ion channels, it can spend this energy on other neural or chain processes," the researchers say.
Neuroscientists analyzed the neurons of 10 different mammals, which became the most extensive electrophysiological study of its kind, and determined a "construction plan" that is valid for all species they looked at, with the exception of humans.
They found that as the size of neurons increases, the density of channels found in neurons also increases.
However, human neurons turned out to be a striking exception to this rule.
"Previous comparative studies have shown that the human brain is arranged in the same way as the brains of other mammals, so we were surprised to find convincing evidence that human neurons are special," the scientists say.
The researchers believe this lower density may have evolved as a way to spend less energy pumping ions, allowing the brain to use this energy for something else, such as creating more complex synaptic connections between neurons or activating action potentials at a higher rate.
"We think humans evolved from this construction plan that previously limited the size of the cerebral cortex, and they found a way to become more energy efficient to spend less ATP per volume compared to other species."
Now the researchers hope to study where this extra energy can go and whether there are certain gene mutations that help the neurons of the human cerebral cortex to achieve such high efficiency. They are also interested in studying whether primate species that are more closely related to humans exhibit a similar decrease in ion channel density.
The study is published in the journal Nature.
ab-news.ru (Alla Konaka)