An MIT neuroscientist's latest research on how our brains build and eliminate synapses could someday enable us to tweak the the process and overclock our minds. Professor Morgan Sheng and postdoc Sang Hyoung Lee identified the "traffic cop" molecule that controls the number of receptors on the surface of neurons.
"Because more receptors mean stronger connections between brain cells, manipulating this process may one day provide a means of boosting brainpower in the hippocampus, where long-term memories are stored."
Linkhttp://www.boingboing.net/cgi-bin/mt/mt-xmlrpc.cgi
UPDATE: BB reader Holly Beale says there's an error in the MIT News Office article quoted above. "The hippocampus isn't where long term memories are stored. There's a famous patient called HM whose hippocampus was surgically removed. He can remember things from before the surgery, but he can't form new memories. It's believed that the hippocampus is crucial for creating long term memories but not storing them."
