Talk:Neuropil

Organization
I am not keen on the way the article is organized. I think it might be more effective to say the regions where neuropil is found only in the intro (put in grey matter too!) and then go straight to function. Can also mention that there is an abundance of capillaries and mitochondria in the neuropil. There, talk about the theories of why the synapses are organized in this way, like efficiency and optimization in the brain (not limited to humans). Then you can talk about neuropil function in humans by talking about its dysfunctional states of Schizophrenia (edit that section for repetition) and Alzheimer's (Talk about how it causes neurons to lose plastic ability to form synapses, hence causing short-term memory loss). When you title sections, take out the word neuropil. It's a given that you are talking about that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUl0plhOXHs I'd suggest watching from 8 minutes to about 19 minutes to get a better picture of what the neuropil looks like, and whether or not it may be informative to talk about its spatial arrangement in the function section, or in the research section. It seems like this is certainly relevant research info, more generally on the topic of neuropil rather than mixed in with research on Schizophrenia. Looks like the Allen Brain Institute is involved and may have good information on the subject. The recent research section is a bit too specific, especially since soon it will not be recent anymore. I would say try to gather information on more overarching studies of the neuropil and it's complexity, why it is important to understand it. Nicolenewell (talk) 02:08, 30 April 2012 (UTC)User:Nicolenewell

Examples Section
These sentences: "However, the degree of similarity depends upon the composition of neuropil being compared. The concentrations of neuropil within certain regions are important to determine because simply using the proportions of the different postsynaptic elements does not verify the necessary, conclusive evidence." These need to be edited and rewritten to explain that knowing the exact concentration of, say dendritic spines, is more important than knowing the relative proportion of spines to the rest of the elements of neuropil. I think this whole section could benefit from clarity, especially when you talk about concentration: concentration of what? Sodium? dendrites, neuropil, synapses? Be specific enough to be clear. Right now I am not seeing how this stuff about concentration and proportion is relevant to the heading of examples, and would suggest eliminating the heading and relocating this information under Research, if it's part of the techniques they use to analyze and investigate the neuropil. Nicolenewell (talk) 22:43, 29 April 2012 (UTC)User:Nicolenewell

Clarity
"Neurons are necessary for all connections made in the brain, and thus can be thought of as the "wires" of the brain. As in computing, an entity is most efficient when its wires are optimized; therefore, a brain which has undergone millions of years of natural selection would be expected to have optimized neural circuitry. To have an optimized neural system it must balance four variables - it must "minimize conduction delays in axons, passive cable attenuation in dendrites, and the length of 'wire' used to construct circuits" as well as "maximize the density of synapses",[6]" I would edit it down to look more like this: Neurons can be though of as the connective "wires" of the brain. Neuropil regions allow for optimization of neural circuitry, and would have been selected for as brains evolved. An optimized neural system must balance four variables... then instead of quoting your source, rework those four variables into everyday language that the reader can understand, ie, it must ensure fast signal conduction along axons (action potential achieves this, though), minimize length of processes (does it?) and then I don't quite understand what the others are trying to say. Nicolenewell (talk) 15:57, 25 April 2012 (UTC)User:Nicolenewell 10:56, 24 April 2012

Definition
"Neuropil, sometimes referred to as "neuropile," is a broad term defined as any area in the nervous system composed of mostly unmyelinated axons, dendrites and glial cell processes that forms synaptically dense region containing a relatively low number of cell bodies." I think that this definition is too wordy and can be simplified. You don't need to include the reference to "neuropile" because the words are close enough already. Neuropil is basically any area of dense synaptic connections between neurons. The most dense regions include the glomeruli and the inner and outer plexiform layers of the retina. Other neuropil sites may have more cell bodies. I think you have the right idea here, but it needs to be more readable. In addition, the bit about the etymology doesn't aid in understanding the neuropil, so it would be helpful to explain that felt is not a verb but a noun, that the word comes from the idea of a "feltwork" of nerve connections (feltwork meaning a set of closely interwoven fibers). See this dictionary site: http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/neuropil. Nicolenewell (talk) 15:57, 25 April 2012 (UTC)User:Nicolenewell 10:23, 24 April 2012

Roche Encyclopedia of Medicine
What is God's name is the "Roche Encyclopedia of Medicine"? If I search it on Google all I get is this wikipedia page (not the discussion page, but the article) and other non-related things. I can't find evidence that this book exists anywhere...and if it does then it seems like it only contains one article on "neuropil" and nothing else, which isn't very much like an encyclopedia. If anyone could provide a link to it's existence I would appreciate it very much. MikeEnnen (talk) 04:56, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Trying
Trying for NPOV rewrite of an article that takes an advocacy position (and is written in the first person singular). It would be nice to know what, if anything, neurology has to say on this subject. Vicki Rosenzweig

Sorry but what does 'feltwork' mean? 194.83.140.31 12:41, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
 * "a set of closely interwoven fibers", (or in some instances matted, squashed-together & loosely interwoven fibers, like the cloth-like material FELT).UnderEducatedGeezer (talk) 20:52, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

Rewrite
I am puzzled by the article, which is unfocused, incoherent, and unspecific. I want to point out these sentences:


 * Neurons are the cells that perform the actual processing of information. Glial cells have 'supporting' functions in a very loose sense of the word.

Hmmm. Yes, this is indeed loose. Glial functions are involved in feedback processing (e.g. in the olfactory bulb from the olfactory cortex) and have possibly some filter function, implemented by their dendrites touching mitral and tufted cell dendrites (dendro-dendritic processing). About "actual processing" there is to say that there is a lot of literature about synaptic processing, "actual" processing in synapses.

I suggest to rewrite the whole article. Ben T/C 14:31, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Image ideas?
What might be a good image for here? Anyone to contact? --Bcjordan (talk) 23:33, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Roche Encyclopedia of Medicine - Clue/Answer
Hi Mike

maybe the author was referring to the German "Roche Lexikon Medizin". Here is the link to the article: http://www.gesundheit.de/lexika/medizin-lexikon/neuropilus.

--Howeworth (talk) 16:25, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Introduction
This might be nitpicky, but I think it would be more effective to start off with the Greek definition, then go into what neuropil is and what it consists of. It seems like this can be quite a bit more concise. For example, "The most prevalent anatomical region of neuropil is the brain which, although not completely composed of neuropil, does have the largest and highest synaptically-concentrated areas of neuropil in the body. For example, the neocortex and olfactory bulb both contain neuropil." can be something like "The most prevalently concentrated regions of neuropil are located in the neocortex and olfactory bulb." I'm also not sure that the sentence on white matter is necessary.

Examples
I'm a bit confused by the section. It begins by listing examples of where neuropil are located, but then doesn't really develop any of those ideas. Comparing relative densities is perhaps noteworthy, but maybe in a different section, such as Neuropil in Non-humans.

Function
This section seems underdeveloped and like it might be better suited under the Examples category. Or, if the functions of different examples of neuropil are so drastic, maybe just merge the two sections. Either way, each example needs more elaboration (ie, the sign-inversion/sign-conservation sentence seems pretty out of place and without context) and there's no transitions between the different anatomical areas, which would greatly increase coherency.

Efficiency
A lot of this section seems to be either intuitive or out of place. Sentences like "Neurons are necessary for all connections made in the brain, and thus can be thought of as the "wires" of the brain. As in computing, an entity is most efficient when its wires are optimized; therefore, a brain which has undergone millions of years of natural selection would be expected to have optimized neural circuitry." can simplified into "Neuropil increases synaptic efficiency." Furthermore, the formulas are stated, but there's implications of this formula - there's a lot of numbers listed, but no explanation.

Disease
It might be useful to name the protein related to schizophrenia, if known. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ccbowman (talk 04:17, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

Peer Review
Overview: The overview seems a little unorganized to me. I think it would flow better to start with the greek definition and then go into explaining what neuropil is.

Examples: I'm a little confused because in this section it lists barrel cortex under one of the areas neuropil can be found in humans, but I was under the impression that humans do not have barrel cortex.

Function: I think it would be advantageous to go into further detail about some of the functions neuropil has in various systems. Also, the sentence relating to neuropil in the retina was a little awkward in phrasing, perhaps just say something along the lines of "bipolar cells are either depolarized or hyperpolarized depending on whether the cell is sign-inverting or a sign-conserving at the synapse from photoreceptor cells" I think the original sentence is just a bit unclear.

Efficiency in the Brain: The quote at the end doesn't seem like it is especially necessary, perhaps it would be more advantageous just to explain that experimental evidence has found that the proportion of wire in those different areas are not significantly different from the proposed 0.6.

Neuropil in Non-Humans: It seems a little odd that the majority of this section is comparing chimpanzee and human neuropil when the section is about "Non-Humans", I would consider giving this section a different title.

Research: The introductory sentence could benefit from a little revision. It is a little unclear, is research focusing on locating the areas in which neuropil is found in many species or is the focus on comparing similar areas between species where they are already known to have neuropil? And as for recent studies, why do we care about having "a proxy measure of total connectivity within a local region"? What can we learn from the measures of total connectivity? Perhaps it would be good to include a little more on the subject.

Overall I think this article could really benefit from some careful rewriting, it seems like it is still lacking in clarity in many places. Jmohnn (talk) 23:46, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

Plurality
In a lot of places, the singular neuropil is used where it seems that the plural neuropils (which is listed in the intro) should instead be used; however, I am unsure. My understanding that a neuropil (singular) is a single region, while neuropils (plural) would be referring to multiple neuropil regions, but I want clarification before making edits. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.106.20.212 (talk) 16:52, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

Is the article's image useful?
In April of 2012 an editor added an image to the article. It shows a section through the retina, with the 7 layers, taken from Gray. I cannot tell which layers might be neuropil, although I'd guess that perhaps the two "plexiform layers" might be. The editor in question has been inactive on WP for years. If any other editors understand how the image illustrates Neuropil, kindly create a caption for the image which explains the connection. Alternatively, feel free to explain it to me, and I will create a caption. Thank you.--Quisqualis (talk) 10:55, 15 December 2018 (UTC)