Identified synapses in the snail's brain

The structure of neural connections and transmission mechanisms is determined, and the plasticity of identified synapses is studied. Intracellular recording combined with the double marking method is used. The depression and facilitation of unitary EPSP (excitatory post-synaptic potentials) are studied. The depression of monosynaptic unitary EPSP is show to satisfy all criteria for habituation. It is also shown that the different monosynaptic components habituate with the different rates. The monosynaptically connected identified sensory and giant neurons of the snail Helix are a very promising experimental model to study the mechanisms of associative learning.<
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