The Brain's Backup Plan: Unpacking the Mystery of Silent Synapses Recent research by MIT scientists has revealed that millions of dormant connections between neurons – known as silent synapses – persist in the adult brain.
This discovery challenges our previous understanding of how memory works and highlights the brain's remarkable capacity for plasticity.
A Shift in Perspective For decades, neuroscientists believed that silent synapses were a feature primarily of early development, disappearing by around 12 days of age.