Development of Selective Connectivity in a Simple Nervous System

墨菲9514701 神经细胞，或神经元，在专门的连接处相互交流 叫做突触。 在化学突触中，一个活跃的神经元释放一种特殊的 化学神经递质化合物从突触前侧的终端， 穿过微小的突触间隙，与突触后的受体分子结合， cell. 神经递质的结合导致电生理变化 称为突触后电位。变送器释放的两个灵敏指示器 可以通过电生理记录测量的是易化， 突触后反应增加，抑郁症， 突触后反应 一些在昆虫中发现的单细胞可以制造两个 突触后细胞上的不同类型的突触，促进一个细胞， 在另一个沮丧。 突触易化的出现 发现由突触后细胞调节，因此靶细胞对 它接收到的输入。 这项工作将利用电生理学和药理学， 研究这种递质释放的逆向调节，利用 无脊椎动物神经系统具有特殊的可识别的突触。 它 可以是共发射器的连续释放差分地调节 突触前末梢的特性，或者相反，突触后神经元 释放调节突触前末梢功能的物质。 这项工作的结果将是重要的理解的重要问题， 突触活动是如何调节的，这些结果可能会有广泛的意义。 神经生理学和发育神经科学的影响。

Murphey 9514701 Nerve cells, or neurons, communicate with each other at specialized junctions called synapses. At chemical synapses, an active neuron releases a particular chemical neurotransmitter compound from the presynaptic side of the terminal to cross the tiny synaptic gap and bind to receptor molecules on the postsynaptic cell. Binding of the neurotransmitter leads to an electrophysiological change called the postsynaptic potential. Two sensitive indicators of transmitter release that can be measured by electrophysiological recordings are facilitation, which is an increased postsynaptic response, and depression, which is a decreased postsynaptic response. Some identified single cells in insects can make two different kinds of synapse on postsynaptic cells, facilitating at one cell and depressing at the other. The emergence of facilitation at a synapse has been found to be regulated by the postsynaptic cell, so the target cell has an effect on the input it receives. This work will use electrophysiology and pharmacology to examine this retrograde regulation of transmitter release, using the advantages of invertebrate nervous systems in having particular identifiable synapses. It may be that a continuous release of a co-transmitter differentially adjusts the properties of the presynaptic terminal, or instead that the postsynaptic neurons release a substance that regulates the function of the presynaptic terminal. Results from this work will be important to understanding the important issue of how synaptic activity is regulated, and these results are likely to have a broad impact in both neurophysiology and developmental neuroscience.