Background: Ketamine is a commonly used intravenous anesthetic which produces dissociation anesthesia, analgesia, and amnesia. The mechanism of ketamine-induced synaptic inhibition in high-level cortical areas is still unknown. We aimed to elucidate the effects of different concentrations of ketamine on the glutamatergic synaptic transmission of the neurons in the primary somatosensory cortex b...

Synaptic adhesion molecules have been extensively studied for their contribution to the regulation of synapse development through trans-synaptic adhesions. However, accumulating evidence increasingly indicates that synaptic adhesion molecules are also involved in the regulation of excitatory synaptic transmission and plasticity, often through direct or close associations with excitatory neurotr...

The kinetics of different steps in synaptic-vesicle recycling, including exocytosis, internalization and repriming, have recently been estimated in various types of living cell.

Achieving high-level skills is generally considered to require intense training, which is thought to optimally engage neuronal plasticity mechanisms. Recent work, however, suggests that intensive training may not be necessary for skill learning. Skills can be effectively acquired by a complementary approach in which the learning occurs in response to mere exposure to repetitive sensory stimulat...

BACKGROUND When simultaneous visual events appear to occur at different times, the discrepancy has generally been ascribed to time differences in neural transmission or cortical processing that lead to asynchronous awareness of the events. RESULTS We found, however, that an apparent delay of changes in motion direction relative to synchronous color changes occurs only for rapid alternations, ...

The cell-autonomous role of synaptic transmission in the regulation of neuronal structural and electrical properties is unclear. We have now employed a genetic approach to eliminate glutamatergic synaptic transmission onto individual CA1 pyramidal neurons in a mosaic fashion in vivo. Surprisingly, while electrical properties are profoundly affected in these neurons, as well as inhibitory synapt...

Objective(s) The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of cannabinoid on cortical spreading depression (CSD) in rat brain. Cannabis has been used for centuries for both symptomatic and prophylactic treatment of different types of headaches including migraine. CSD is believed to be a putative neuronal mechanism underlying migraine aura and subsequent pain. Materials and Methods T...