Synaptic Plasticity

What lies at the heart of neuronal plasticity? Accumulating evidence points to epigenetics. This word originally indicated potentially heritable modifications in gene expression that do not involve changes in DNA sequence. Today this definition is much less strict, and epigenetic control is thought to include DNA methylation, histone modifications, histone variants, microRNA metabolic pathways and non-histone proteins modifications. Thus, while neuronal plasticity is rightly thought to be intimately associated to genomic control, it is critical to appreciate that there is much more to the genome than DNA sequence.

This book reviews the scientific literature and the authors’ own research linking aluminum neurotoxicity with cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). It focuses on aluminum levels in the brain, region-specific and subcellular distribution, its relation to neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid beta—the pathological features of AD, and the possible mechanism of aluminum inducing these pathological features. Further, the book stresses the importance of aluminum’s complex speciation chemistry in relation to biology, and details aluminum’s mechanism in oxidative stress and cell death, especially in connection with apoptosis and necroptosis. The electrophysiological variation and synaptic plasticity induced by aluminum are covered, while the metal’s debatable role in AD and the cross-talk between aluminum and genetic susceptibility are also discussed, and more recently the relationship between aluminum-induced epigenetic modification on DNA and non-coding RNAs and neuron death and synaptic impairment.

Neuroscience Insights: Brain Hacks to Defeat Procrastination, Change Habits and Enhance Memory using Neuroplasticity