Paper on spines and LTP

[Lubica Benuskova]

Dear Connectionists,
the preprint of the following article: 
"The intra-spine electric force can drive vesicles for 
fusion: a theoretical model for long-term potentiation"
Neuroscience Letters, 280(1) 2000, pp. 17-20,

can be downloaded from
http://www.dcs.elf.stuba.sk/~benus/#publications

Abstract:
We have estimated the intensity of intra-spine electric 
fields triggered by stimulation of excitatory spine synapses. 
We show that this electric force can cause fast electrophoretic 
movement of negatively charged vesicles which bring new 
postsynaptic receptors and membrane for insertion during the 
induction of long-term potentiation (LTP). Due to the direction
of an intra-spine electric field, movement of vesicles is 
electrophoretically directed along the longitudal spine axis 
towards the spine head. Thus, the number of fused vesicles may 
be proportional not only to the increased calcium concentration 
within the spine head during the induction of LTP but also to 
the magnitude of electric force which drives vesicles towards 
the postsynaptic membrane.


Lubica Benuskova, PhD
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Slovak Technical University
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
Ilkovicova 3, 812 19 Bratislava 1, Slovakia
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Phone: (+421 7) 602 91 696    Fax: (+421 7) 654 20 587
E-mail: benus at elf.stuba.sk, benus at dcs.elf.stuba.sk
http://www.dcs.elf.stuba.sk/~benus