A FAULT in the neurotransmitter serotonin may help to explain some cases of sudden infant death syndrome, a discovery that might eventually make it possible to identify babies who are at risk.
Serotonin was thought to be involved in activating “pacemaker” cells in the medulla at the base of the brain, which prompt a suffocating baby to gasp and recover, says Jan-Marino Ramirez of the University of Chicago. “Now we’ve found that these neurons depend on serotonin, and if you take it away there’s no gasping,” says Ramirez. His team studied the effect of oxygen deprivation and serotonin on mouse pacemaker cells grown in the lab (…
