Affiliation:
1. Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Abstract
The understanding of how activity can facilitate electrical transmission is incomplete. We found that electrotonic potentials between electrically coupled neuroendocrine bag cell neurons facilitated in a use-dependent fashion. Rather than changes to the junctional current, facilitation was associated with cumulative inactivation of postsynaptic K+ current, presumably augmenting responsiveness. When made to burst, neurons synchronized their spiking, in part by use-dependent facilitation bringing quiescent cells to the threshold. Facilitation may foster en masse firing and neurosecretion.
Funder
Gouvernement du Canada | Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Publisher
American Physiological Society
Subject
Physiology,General Neuroscience