Canadian Brains • by Mark Cembrowski • 1

Hamilton Arts & Letters       The activated dentate gyrus: Granule cells of the dentate gyrus (red), a cell type active during learning and memory, co-stained for a marker of neural activity (green).   The brain is one of the most complex and mysterious pieces of organized matter in the known universe. One way to begin to understand the brain is from the perspective of cell types; that is, the cellular building blocks that make up the brain. Such building blocks can be thought of as a neurobiological "periodic table" that form the fundamental units of the brain. In understanding these cell-type parts, neuroscience is well-positioned to understand how the brain functions in everyday life, and how it goes awry in disorder and disease. The images shown here highlight these building blocks - the precise cells of the brain - with the ultimate goal of using this knowledge to understand memory and cognition.  [  >>>>>   FORWARD ]   + [Distillate © HA&L + Mark Cembrowski {from the Greek bios} -- the course of a life.]