NEUR 310 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Sensory Neuron, Synaptic Plasticity, Aplysia
Document Summary
Regulation of neurotransmitter release: vesicles that are green are the ones that are primed (half-zippered) and thus will release with a calcium trigger. The strength of the connection between two neurons is not static. Synaptic strength changes based on recent firing patterns of the pre and/or post synaptic neuron. Synaptic strength is changed by modulatory transmitters acting both on transmitter release and the reception of transmitter: gpcrs on the pre-synaptic terminal for neuromodulatory transmission, when talking about synaptic plasticity, it"s always referring to fast synaptic transmission. What (mechanisms) affects the probability of release (p): amount of calcium entering with an action potential: more calcium, more release. The rrp can be measured using an independent way of releasing vesicles, such as hypertonic shock (e. g. sucrose: the change in osmolarity puts a pressure on the membrane since sucrose cannot cross the membrane - makes it unstable.