Scientists have uncovered a surprisingly large reserve of “silent synapses” in the adult brain—unused neural connections that can be rapidly activated to store new memories.

Co-written with Jai Liester. Silent synapses represent one of neuroscience's most fascinating discoveries—connections between neurons that lie dormant until activated by specific triggers. These ...

Healthy adult brains are endowed with a vast number of synapses, structures that relay signals across nerve cells to enable communications, information processing and storage throughout the nervous ...