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Quantal Mechanisms Underlying Stimulation-Induced Augmentation And Potentiation, Hong Cheng
Quantal Mechanisms Underlying Stimulation-Induced Augmentation And Potentiation, Hong Cheng
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Repetitive stimulation of motor nerves causes an increase in the number of packets of transmitter ("quanta") that can be released in the ensuing period. This represents a type of conditioning, in which synaptic transmission may be enhanced by prior activity. Despite many studies of this phenomenon, there have been no investigations of the quantal mechanisms underlying these events, due to the rapid changes in transmitter output and the short time periods involved. To examine this problem, a method was developed in which estimates of the quantal release parameters could be obtained over very brief periods (3 s). Conventional microelectrode techniques …