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Short Term Synaptic Depression Imposes a Frequency Dependent Filter on Synaptic Information Transfer

Figure 1

Synaptic vesicle dynamics.

(A) The axon of a presynaptic neuron (orange) makes synaptic contacts onto a postsynaptic neuron (green). (B) Synaptic vesicles in the synaptic terminal of the presynaptic neuron contain neurotransmitter molecules. A presynaptic action potential releases these neurotransmitter molecules with some probability, . Once released, these molecules bind to the postsynaptic neuron's membrane and cause a transient change in membrane conductance. (C,D) After a vesicle is released, the synapse enters a refractory state where it is unavailable to release additional neurotransmitter until it recovers by replacing the released vesicle.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002557.g001