Abstract
The search for cellular mechanisms of learning and memory has been greatly influenced by the analysis, initiated by Eric Kandel and his colleagues, of synaptic plasticity in simple defensive withdrawal reflexes of the marine snail Aplysia californica. Best understood in this system are events connected with presynaptic facilitation, in which the amount of neurotransmitter released from sensory onto motor neurons is increased following activation of modulatory neurons. The neuromodulatory agent released by these neurons has not been identified, but its effects can be mimicked by serotonin and the small cardioactive peptides SCPA and SCPB. On the molecular level, presynaptic facilitation appears to result mainly from cAMP-mediated closure by these agents of a class of background K channels, the ‘S’ channels, leading to delay in action potential repolarization, enhanced influx of Ca2+ into the presynaptic terminal and greater release of transmitter. In turn, presynaptic facilitation is thought to underlie behavioral sensitization and classical conditioning (reviewed by Kandel and Schwartz, 1982; Kandel et al. 1983; Byrne et al. 1986; Siegelbaum, 1987).
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© 1988 Plenum Press, New York
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Březina, V., Erxleben, C. (1988). Modulation of Potassium and Calcium Currents by FMR Famide in Aplysia Neurons: A Mechanism of Presynaptic Inhibition?. In: Grinnell, A.D., Armstrong, D., Jackson, M.B. (eds) Calcium and Ion Channel Modulation. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0975-8_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0975-8_22
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