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unusual facts about Synapse



Bernard Katz

Katz won the Nobel for his discovery with Paul Fatt that neurotransmitter release at synapses is "quantal"—that is, that at any particular synapse the amount of neurotransmitter released is never less than a certain amount, and if more is always an integral number times this amount.

Compartmental modelling of dendrites

Originally the dendrites were thought to have constant conductance and current but now it has been understood that they may have active Voltage-gated ion channels, which influences the firing properties of the neuron and also the response of neuron to synaptic inputs.

Continuous subscription service

In 1996, Synapse founders Jay S. Walker and Michael Loeb introduced the concept of continuous subscription service, which basically took the same business model used by cable television companies, internet service providers, and wireless phone companies.

CREB in cognition

Knockout studies in Aplysia sea slugs indicated that decreasing CREB function blocks long-term changes in synaptic function, but not short-term ones.

DLGAP2

DLGAP2 has been shown to interact with DLG4, the canonical synapse marker protein, which in turn binds to N-methyld-aspartate (NMDA) receptors and Shaker-type K+ channels.

Gephyrin

Gephyrin displaces GABA receptors from the GABARAP/P130 complex, then brings the receptors to the synapse.

Horrors of Malformed Men

On August 28, 2007, Synapse Films and Panik House gave Horrors of Malformed Men a mass-market release on region-1 DVD.

MiR-134

miR-134 is a brain-specific microRNA; in rats it is localised specifically in hippocampal neurons and may indirectly regulate synaptic development through antisense pairing with LIMK1 mRNA.

Neural network software

Component based development environments include: Peltarion Synapse, NeuroDimension NeuroSolutions, Scientific Software Neuro Laboratory, and the LIONsolver integrated software.

Neurofibromin 1

NF1 is also known to interact with CASK through syndecan, a protein which is involved in the KIF17/ABPA1/CASK/LIN7A complex, which is involved in trafficking GRIN2B to the synapse.

Squid giant synapse

Early electrophysiological studies demonstrated the chemical nature of transmission at this synapse by making simultaneous intracellular recording from the presynaptic and postsynaptic terminals in vitro (Theodore Holmes Bullock and Hagiwara (1957), Hagiwara and Ichiji Tasaki (1958), Takeuchi and Takeuchi (1962).

The calcium hypothesis for synaptic transmission was directly demonstrated in this synapse by showing that at the equilibrium potential for calcium, no transmitter is released (Bernard Katz and R. Miledi 1967).

The squid giant synapse (Fig 1) was first recognized by John Zachary Young in 1939.

Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science

Since 1973, the cover page of the conference proceedings has featured an artwork entitled synapse, by Alvy Ray Smith, who has also been the author of three papers in the conference.

Synaptic fatigue

Hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are impairment of cognition, aggregation of β-amyloid peptide (Aβ), neurofibrillary degeneration, loss of neurons with accelerated atrophy of specific brain areas, and decrease of synapse number in surviving neurons.


see also