Dendritic sensitivity to the direction of synaptic firing mediated by inhibition; and, The effects of the release timecourse of neurotransmitter on synaptic transmission

Introduction: This thesis contains two main projects that I worked on during my graduate studies at MIT. Both address the subject matter of how neurons communicate, process, and pass information within the context of larger neuronal ensembles. The first project focuses on information transfer between two neurons during synaptic transmission. The project was spurred by an initial observation that neuronal communication through synapses in young and developing neuronal networks is only "half-hearted" in that signals propagate predominantly through only one type of synaptic receptor (the NMDA receptor), and bypass the principal signaling pathway present in mature synaptic transmission (AMPA receptor) (Malenka and Nicoll 1997). The possible cause of this abnormality was either that AMPA receptors were lacking on the postsynaptic side, or that something else in the process of synaptic transmission rendered them inoperable.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Krupa, Boris

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Guosong Liu.

• Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/34484
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/34484

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34484