NEUR 001 Lecture 14: Methods of Research
Document Summary
The more precise technique is the excitotoxic one, but we can"t do them in humans. We can only do electrolytic in humans: we can"t introduce neurotoxins into humans. We know that specific structures play a role in regulating a function, but we don"t know what other brain regions connect. Want to move forward from that structure and find where we are going from that structure: anterograde labeling traces efferent connections. Output from one area to another: efferent connections. Inject tracing chemical: phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin (pha-l) Chemicals taken up by dendrites or soma: sometimes takes hours or days for the process to occur. Then look and see where the axons are going. Traces afferent connections: back to structures that influence current place in brain. These chemicals are taken up by the axon terminals. The chemicals are then carried backwards to the cell body by axoplasmic transport, so we are tracing backwards. Need a method to study the brain without killing humans.
