Chemical communication between nerve cells underlies brain functions, such as the control of sensory and motor processing, memory and learning. Monitoring neurotransmitter secretion is crucial to studying and understanding how the brain works. Various research teams have endeavoured to develop techniques for monitoring neurotransmitter release at the single-cell level, according to researchers in The Netherlands only invasive methods such as electrophysiological techniques and fluorescent probe labelling have provided adequate temporal and spatial sensitivity. These limits suffer from being limited to specific analytes.
Now, the researchers have turned to a specialist spectroscopic technique to develop a new approach to monitoring neurotransmitters that is non-invasive and side-steps the issue of analyte limitations.
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