Fast and reliable: New mechanism for speedy transmission in basket cells discovered
Monday, March 24, 2014 - 13:30
in Biology & Nature
A new subcellular mechanism for reliable, fast transmission in the so-called basket cells of the brain has been discovered by researchers. Basket cells play a key role in information processing in neuronal networks in the hippocampus. To fulfill their function, signal transmission has to be both fast and reliable: basket cells convert an incoming excitatory signal into an outgoing inhibitory signal within up to a millisecond, and this output signal needs to be distributed to a large number of target cells.