You probably knew your brain is one complicated piece of machinery, but did you know it has its own plumbing system? Neuroscientists from Rochester University have discovered a system of pipes that help drain waste away from the brain.
"Waste clearance is of central importance to every organ, and there have been long-standing questions about how the brain gets rid of its waste," said senior author of the paper Maiken Nedergaard, M.D. "This work shows that the brain is cleansing itself in a more organized way and on a much larger scale than has been realized previously.
The team named this cleansing system the "glymphatic system." It was previously known that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) trickles through the brain and helps carry away waste. The glymphatic system, however, is much more active cleansing system, pumping large amounts of CSF through every part of the brain.
"It's as if the brain has two garbage haulers -- a slow one that we've known about, and a fast one that we've just met," said Nedergaard. "Given the high rate of metabolism in the brain, and its exquisite sensitivity, it's not surprising that its mechanisms to rid itself of waste are more specialized and extensive than previously realized."
The reason it wasn't discovered earlier is that the glymphatic system is only actively working in a living organism. Scientists proposed there must be a more extensive CSF system almost three decades ago, but lacked the technology to map CSF flows in a living creature. Now, the scientists used a method involving two-photon microscopy that allowed them to map out CSF and other substances in the brain.
"It's a hydraulic system," said Nedergaard. "Once you open it, you break the connections, and it cannot be studied. We are lucky enough to have technology now that allows us to study the system intact, to see it in operation."
So rest a little easier if someone has ever said you had a dirty mind - your brain already knows it and is hard at work cleaning it up.
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