Potassium Channels and Neurovascular Coupling

Models of neurovascular coupling via potassium and EET signalling.

Functional hyperemia is an important metabolic autoregulation mechanism by which increased neuronal activity is matched by a rapid and regional increase in blood supply. This mechanism is facilitated by a process known as "neurovascular coupling"--the orchestrated communication system involving neurons, astrocytes and arterioles. Important steps in this process are the production of EETs in the...

The Bimodal Nature of Neurovascular Coupling

Neurons, by virtue of their complex and continuously changing signaling roles in brain, must be able to regulate access to energy in order to maintain their ability to communicate meaningful frequency-encoded information. This is accomplished by release of neurotransmitters to astrocytes that in turn signal the vascular system to increase cerebral blood flow (CBF). This process has been termed ...

Conformational coupling in BK potassium channels

Large conductance calcium- and voltage-dependent BK potassium channels (aka BK(Ca), MaxiK, Slo1, KCa1.1, and KCNMA1) are expressed in a wide variety of tissues throughout the body and are activated by both intracellular Ca(2+) and membrane depolarization. Owing to these properties, BK channels participate in diverse physiological processes from electrical excitability in neurons and secretory c...

Spreading depression and neurovascular coupling.

Neurovascular coupling - Scholarpedia

Neurovascular coupling refers to the relationship between local neural activity and subsequent changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF). The magnitude and spatial location of blood flow changes are tightly linked to changes in neural activity through a complex sequence of coordinated events involving neurons, glia, and vascular cells. Many vascular-based functional brain imaging techniques, such as...