Mammals’ brain cells study reverse century-old understanding of axon shape

Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists have presented new evidence that an armlike structure of mammalian brain cells may be a different shape than scientists have assumed for more than a century. Their study on mouse brain cells shows that the cells’ axons — the armlike structures that reach out and exchange information with other brain cells — are not the cylindrical tubes often pictured in books and on websites but more like pearls on a string.