• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Wednesday, September 3, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

Full detonation in the hippocampus

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
November 9, 2016
in Science News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram
IMAGE

Credit: Courtesy of Astrid Rollenhagen and Joachim Lübke; for details see Rollenhagen et al., J. Neurosci. 27: 10434-10444 (2007)

Synapses form connections between neurons. Their network is intricate: a single postsynaptic neuron can be connected with thousands of presynaptic neurons. At the synapse, information is transferred from the presynaptic to the postsynaptic neuron. A key factor in information processing is the strength of the synapse. The neuromuscular junction, the connection between neuron and muscle, and the calyx of Held, a synapse in the auditory brainstem, are strong synapses. Also called full detonators, when one of these presynaptic neurons sends out a single activating signal or action potential, the postsynaptic neuron fires.

Whether such detonators also exist in the cortex of the brain has been unclear. In the present study, the authors investigate the synapse between granule cells and CA3 pyramidal cells in the hippocampus, using a recently developed method to simultaneously stimulate the individual presynaptic terminal and record from the connected postsynaptic CA3 neuron. Under normal conditions, a single action potential from the granule cell does not induce firing in the CA3 neuron. Instead, the granule cells are 'conditional detonators': burst firing of action potentials from a granule cell is required to get the CA3 neuron to fire as well.

But when the researchers altered the synaptic plasticity of the granule cell by stimulating a single presynaptic terminal to fire at high frequency for only one second, causing post-tetanic potentiation (PTP), the picture changes. The granule cell turns into a full detonator: a single action potential causes the CA3 neuron to fire. Peter Jonas explains the significance of their study: "It is generally thought that individual synapses in the brain are weak, and that tens or hundreds of inputs have to be integrated to activate a neuron. The present paper challenges this view, showing that full detonator synapses exist in the brain. This has important implications for higher order computations in the circuit."

Short-term synaptic plasticity in the form of PTP produces a computational switch at the studied synapse. This change is prolonged, lasting for tens of seconds. This could be critical for information coding, storage and recall in the network formed by granule cells and CA3 neurons, as Nicholas Vyleta points out: "A single hippocampal mossy fiber synapse can produce an action potential in a postsynaptic pyramidal neuron after activity-dependent enhancement of transmitter release. This computational switch may allow a single piece of highly specific information from the dentate gyrus to be transmitted through the hippocampal formation, and may form the basis of the processing of information in this circuit by pattern separation."

The study was published in eLife, an open access journal for the life sciences and biomedicine. The journal is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society and the Wellcome Trust. For Carolina Borges-Merjane and Nicholas Vyleta, publishing their new findings in the open access journal provides several advantages: "Publishing our work in eLife maximizes the impact of our research and availability to other scientists. eLife has already been well recognized as a reliable journal, with efficient peer-review by scientists from many fields. Our experiences with reviewers and the editor were fair, efficient and their comments were very constructive. Plus the paper is available freely not just to other scientists, but also the general public, including our families. "

###

Media Contact

Stefan Bernhardt
[email protected]
@Istaustria

http://Www.ist.ac.at

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Study Reveals 62% of Atrial Fibrillation Patients Unaware of Their Condition Prior to Diagnosis

September 3, 2025

69 Schools Receive Wellness Grants to Advance Healthier Communities Nationwide

September 3, 2025

Colorless Solar Windows: Revolutionizing Architecture into Clean Energy Generators

September 3, 2025

Enhancing Health Equity Reporting in Observational Studies: Introducing STROBE-Equity Guidelines

September 3, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Needlestick Injury Rates in Nurses and Students in Pakistan

    297 shares
    Share 119 Tweet 74
  • Breakthrough in Computer Hardware Advances Solves Complex Optimization Challenges

    155 shares
    Share 62 Tweet 39
  • Molecules in Focus: Capturing the Timeless Dance of Particles

    143 shares
    Share 57 Tweet 36
  • New Drug Formulation Transforms Intravenous Treatments into Rapid Injections

    118 shares
    Share 47 Tweet 30

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Study Reveals 62% of Atrial Fibrillation Patients Unaware of Their Condition Prior to Diagnosis

69 Schools Receive Wellness Grants to Advance Healthier Communities Nationwide

Colorless Solar Windows: Revolutionizing Architecture into Clean Energy Generators

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.