The brain appears to process information more chaotically than has long been assumed.

This is demonstrated by a new study conducted by scientists at the University of Bonn. The passing on of information from neuron to neuron does not, they show, occur exclusively at the synapses, i.e. the junctions between the nerve cell extensions. Rather, it seems that the neurons release their chemical messengers along the entire length of these extensions and, in this way, excite the neighbouring cells. The findings of the study are of huge significance since they explode fundamental notions about the way our brain works.

“We think … that on their way though the grey matter the axons probably release glutamate at other points apart from the synapses,” Dr. Dirk Dietrich at Bonn University speculates. “Nerve cells and dendrites are closely packed together here. So the axon could not only excite the actual receptor but also numerous other nerve cells.”

If this hypothesis is correct, the accepted scientific understanding of the way neurons communicate — that neurotransmitters are only releases a t synapses, which has prevailed for over a hundred years, will have to be revised.