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With the usual crummy standards of science reporting, this leaves me more confused than when I started. Is Arc in the human genome or not? If it's not, then where does it come from? And if it is, why do neighboring neurons die if they do not get a transmission of the encapsulated Arc RNA? Can't they build it themselves?

I'm sure there's a straightforward answer to this that I'm missing, but the article isn't helping.

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From the article:

Arc was originally a virus and is now encoded as a gene within the human genome. (part of the point of the article)

The neurons don't die, the synapses wither, and not for lack of the gene, but for lack of the encoded messages ordered up by the gene within neighboring synapses.

The article suggests that synapses are using some sort of chemical notification system, out of band of the synapse-to-synapse firing that permits reorganization. When there is a defect in the notification system, you get autism or worse.

All of that was in the article. Maybe slow down a bit?

To simplify it a bit more (but not to lose correctness) it seems like this molecule is a maintenance signal, meaning the path is in use.

If it's not present the channel gets closed.

The whole purpose is to make it possible for a synapse to wither, because to reorganize something needs to be tore down.

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