Common Neuroscience Sensors Sometimes Get Their Signals Crossed
Study flags hidden complexity, could inform neurological disease research
The future of federally funded research at Harvard Medical School — supported by taxpayers and done in service to humanity — remains uncertain. Learn more.
Cells in the brain communicate in different ways. The classical mode involves tight connections between individual cells that signal only to each other. But over the last decade, new tools have allowed scientists to focus increasingly on other, more diffuse systems, in which brain chemicals called neuromodulators communicate with many different cells over longer time frames.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School are now reporting that fluorescent sensors commonly used in this research can mix up two neuromodulators: dopamine and norepinephrine.
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