This is a new model of the short-term dynamics of glutamatergic synaptic transmission, which incorporates multiple mechanisms acting at differing sites and across a range of different time scales (ms to tens of seconds). In the paper, we show that this model can accurately reproduce the experimentally measured time-course of short term depression across different stimulus frequencies at the calyx of Held. The model demonstrates how multiple forms of activity-dependent modulation of release probability and vesicle pool depletion interact, and shows how stimulus-history-dependent recovery from synaptic depression can arise from dynamics on multiple time scales.
Model Type: Synapse
Cell Type(s): Medial Nucleus of the Trapezoid Body (MNTB) neuron
Currents: I Calcium
Transmitters: Glutamate
Model Concept(s): Short-term Synaptic Plasticity
Simulation Environment: MATLAB
Implementer(s): Hennig, Matthias H [mhhennig at gmail.com]
References:
Hennig MH, Postlethwaite M, Forsythe ID, Graham BP. (2008). Interactions between multiple sources of short-term plasticity during evoked and spontaneous activity at the rat calyx of Held. The Journal of physiology. 586 [PubMed]