Facteur de croissance nerveuseLe facteur de croissance nerveuse ou NGF (acronyme de l'appellation anglophone Nerve growth factor) est un polypeptide de la famille des neurotrophines. Il est impliqué dans la croissance, la prolifération et la survie d'un certain nombre de neurones mais également d'autres cellules. Ce facteur de croissance a été le premier à avoir été identifié et à ce titre constitue le prototype de cette famille de facteurs. Son gène, NGF, est situé sur le chromosome 1 humain.
FGFRThe fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFR) are, as their name implies, receptors that bind to members of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family of proteins. Some of these receptors are involved in pathological conditions. For example, a point mutation in FGFR3 can lead to achondroplasia. The fibroblast growth factor receptors consist of an extracellular ligand domain composed of three immunoglobulin-like domains, a single transmembrane helix domain, and an intracellular domain with tyrosine kinase activity.
Cable theoryClassical cable theory uses mathematical models to calculate the electric current (and accompanying voltage) along passive neurites, particularly the dendrites that receive synaptic inputs at different sites and times. Estimates are made by modeling dendrites and axons as cylinders composed of segments with capacitances and resistances combined in parallel (see Fig. 1). The capacitance of a neuronal fiber comes about because electrostatic forces are acting through the very thin lipid bilayer (see Figure 2).
BrainbowBrainbow is a process by which individual neurons in the brain can be distinguished from neighboring neurons using fluorescent proteins. By randomly expressing different ratios of red, green, and blue derivatives of green fluorescent protein in individual neurons, it is possible to flag each neuron with a distinctive color. This process has been a major contribution to the field of neural connectomics. The technique was originally developed in 2007 by a team led by Jeff W. Lichtman and Joshua R.