Hughes Stuart W, Crunelli Vincenzo
School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, CF10 3US, UK.
Cellscience. 2006 Jan 28;2(3):1-9.
Following certain patterns of electrical activity the strength of conventional chemical synapses in many areas of the mammalian brain can be subject to long-term modifications. Such modifications have been extensively characterised and are hypothesised to form the basis of learning and memory. A recent study in Science now shows that activity-dependent long-term modifications may also occur in the strength of mammalian electrical synapses. This raises the enticing possibility that electrical synapses might also contribute to neural plasticity and challenges the notion that in the mammalian CNS they are a simple mechanism for 'hardwiring' discrete neuronal populations.
遵循特定的电活动模式，哺乳动物大脑许多区域中传统化学突触的强度会发生长期改变。此类改变已得到广泛描述，并被认为是学习和记忆的基础。《科学》杂志最近的一项研究表明，哺乳动物电突触的强度也可能发生依赖于活动的长期改变。这引发了一种诱人的可能性，即电突触也可能有助于神经可塑性，并挑战了在哺乳动物中枢神经系统中它们只是连接离散神经元群体的一种简单机制的观点。
