Close-up of the Nervous System

Scientists regularly use microscopes, recording their observations in a lab notebook. Students view slides of brain tissue under a microscope then describe and identify brain and neuron structures resulting from their observations.

Grade Level: 5-12

Lesson Length: 1 class period

In a new short video entitled Visualizing Synapses, confocal images of a climbing fiber axon forming synapses on a Purkinje cell and its dendrites emerge as if viewed through a microscope. The most detailed view shows the parts labeled. View the Visualizing Synapses video and see the four confocal images which were used in the creation of the video. Confocal Image Stack A02 courtesy of Blake Ebner and Harry Orr.

Another view of the neuron is available at Visualizing Neurons which features an image of a Cultured Hippocampal Pyramidal Neuron expressing GFP courtesy of Dr. Dezhi Liao.