Faculty Opinions recommendation of Monosynaptic convergence of chorda tympani and glossopharyngeal afferents onto ascending relay neurons in the nucleus of the solitary tract: a high-resolution confocal and correlative electron microscopy approach.
This article utilizes a novel approach to establishing the presence of contacts between neural processes as are necessary for synaptic interaction. Essentially, the method relies on the limits of optical resolution to identify points of contact. If two processes do make contact, then even with at the limits of optical resolution, there should be a line of pixels showing colocalization, although the two objects cannot physically occupy the same point in space. If unlabeled pixels exist between two objects, then they cannot be in synaptic contact. The authors utilize this clever method to show convergence of input from gustatory nerves innervating different oral structures onto single post-synaptic cells, but this method can be applied generally to microanalysis of circuity in any neural system.