Introduction

Valentine's Day flowers

Valentine's Day flowers

Precursor_Cells
Carcagano, et al. The Journal of Neuroscience, 2014.

The above image provides a snapshot of neural precursor cells (pink and yellow) in a mouse embryo that will mature into different types of spinal cord neurons (blue), depending on the signals they receive. By studying the molecular instructions that guide these and other neurons to become one type of cell or another, scientists hope to better understand how the nervous system develops.

Republished from BrainFacts.org. See more beautiful images in the BrainFacts’ image of the week archive.

References
Carcagno AL, Di Bella DJ, Goulding M, Guillemot F, Lanuza GM. Neurogenin3 restricts serotonergic neuron differentiation to the hindbrain. The Journal of Neuroscience. 34(46): 15223-15233 (2014).