How does our nervous system operate so quickly and efficiently? The answer lies in a membranous structure called myelin. Aa Aa Aa All our activities — eating, walking, talking — are controlled by our ...

New research from scientists at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University has identified a key driver of myelination, the formation of protective fatty sheaths around nerve fibers.

Human brains (and the brains of other vertebrates) are able to process information faster because of myelin, a fatty substance that forms a protective sheath over the axons of our nerve cells and ...

The disruption of axons—the thread-like part of nerve cells that transmits electrical signals—is associated with Alzheimer's disease. One way axonal function may be hindered is through damage to the ...

A new study reveals that myelin sheath damage triggers epileptiform spikes and slows REM oscillations during sleep.

Devaux and Gow demonstrate how a tight junction protein called claudin 11 makes the neuronal myelin sheath a snug fit. The study will be published in the December 1, 2008 issue of the Journal of Cell ...

When treated with a novel protein function inhibitor called ESI1, mice that mimic the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS) and lab-prepared human brain cells both demonstrated the ability to regenerate ...

A breakthrough study appears to overcome difficulties that have long frustrated previous attempts to reverse a form of nerve damage that robs people with MS of motor control and gradually blunts ...