Background: Facing environmental factors during early postnatal life, directly or indirectly via mother-infant relationships, profoundly affects the structure and function of the mammals’ Central Nervous System (CNS). Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of morphine consumption during the lactation period on short-term synaptic plasticity of the hippocampal Cornu Ammonis 1 (C...

The discovery that neuroligin is a key protein involved in synapse formation offers the unprecedented opportunity to induce functional synapses between neurons and heterologous cells. We took this opportunity recording for the first-time synaptic currents in human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells transfected with neuroligin and the N-methyl-d-aspartate or AMPA receptor subunits in a co-cultu...

Synaptic transmission plays a crucial role in signal transduction in the adult central nervous system. It is known that synaptic transmission can be modulated by physiological and pathological processes and a number of factors including metal ions, pH, drugs, etc. The patch-clamp technique allows to measure postsynaptic currents, but the mechanism of these currents modulation remains unclear. T...

objective: low-frequency stimulation (lfs) exerts suppressive effects in kindled animals. it is believed that overstimulated glutamatergic and decreased gabaergic transmission have long been associated with seizure activity. in this study, we investigated the effect of electrical lfs on different parameters of spontaneous excitatory and inhibitory post-synaptic currents (sepscs and sipscs) in h...

Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) dopamine D1/5 receptors modulate long-and short-term neuronal plasticity which may contribute to cognitive functions. Synergistic to synaptic strength modulation, direct post-synaptic D1/5 receptor activation also modulates voltage-dependent ionic currents that regulate spike firing, thus altering the neuronal input-output relationships in a process called long-term pote...

Neurotransmitter corelease is emerging as a common theme of central neuromodulatory systems. Though corelease of glutamate or GABA with acetylcholine has been reported within the cholinergic system, the full extent is unknown. To explore synaptic signaling of cholinergic forebrain neurons, we activated choline acetyltransferase expressing neurons using channelrhodopsin while recording post-syna...

Protein kinase M zeta (PKMζ), an atypical isoform of protein kinase C (PKC), has been implicated in long-term maintenance of neuronal plasticity and memory. However, the cellular machinery involved in these functions has yet to be elucidated. Here, we investigated the effects of PKMζ overexpression on the morphology and function of cortical neurons in primary cultures. Transfection with a plasm...

Activation of presynaptic inhibitory receptors or high-frequency synaptic stimulation normally inhibits excitatory synaptic transmission by reducing transmitter release. We have explored the interactions between these two pathways for reducing synaptic strength and found that for synapses stimulated at high rates, agonists of the GABA(B) receptor become excitatory and strengthen transmission. A...

The artificial axon is an excitable node built with the basic biomolecular components and supporting action potentials. Here we demonstrate coincidence firing (the AND operation) and other basic electrophysiology features such as increasing firing rates for increasing input currents. We construct the basic unit for a network by connecting two such excitable nodes through an electronic synapse, ...

The peak amplitudes of the quantal Excitatory Post Synaptic Currents in single hippocampal synapses show a large variability. Here, we present the results of a mathematical, computational investigation on the main sources of this variability. A detailed description of the synaptic cleft, rigorously based on empirically-derived parameters, was used. By using a Brownian motion model of neurotrans...