Short and long-term effects of postsynaptic calcium fluctuations in dendritic processing, in identified lamprey spinal neurons

Project Information

Grant agreement ID: FMBI983008

Project closed

Start date 1 February 1999

End date 31 January 2002

Funded under

• Specific research and technological development programme in the field of the training and mobility of researchers, 1994-1998

Total cost No data

EU contribution No data

Coordinated by

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Greece

Objective

Research objectives and content Fast electrical communication between neurons in the CNS occurs primarily through synapses located on dendrites. Calcium ion concentration in the dendrites is known to depend strongly on synaptic activity, but little is as yet understood about its functional significance in dendritic processing. Dendrites have a fundamental role in integrating information converging often from thousands of synapses; calcium is a well established modulatory agent of cellular properties through action of KCa channels, different protein kinases, etc. It seems therefore of utmost importance to establish how Ca2+ entry via NMDA receptors at synapses, and voltage-gated channels throughout dendrites, influences signaling from other synapses to the soma and synaptic plasticity, particularly during physiological repetitive neuronal firing. The lamprey spinal cord, a model system for studying the physiology of locomotor pattern generation, will enable us to interpret dendritic calcium fluctuations in the context of locomotor network function. Specifically, connected pairs of identified pre- and postsynaptic neurons will be studied by applying various intracellular stimulation paradigms and simultaneously visualizing dendritic Ca2+ changes with specific fluorophors, under fast-scanning confocal and DIC microscopy. Training content (objective, benefit and expected impact) Learning electrophysiological research techniques, including: intracellular recordings, patch clamp, video-rate confocal and DIC microscopy, calcium imaging. Attending courses on specific neuroscience topics. Links with industry / industrial relevance (22)

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.

• natural sciences › biological sciences › neurobiology
• natural sciences › chemical sciences › inorganic chemistry › alkaline earth metals
• natural sciences › biological sciences › biochemistry › biomolecules › proteins
• natural sciences › physical sciences › optics › microscopy
• medical and health sciences › basic medicine › physiology

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Programme(s)

• FP4-TMR - Specific research and technological development programme in the field of the training and mobility of researchers, 1994-1998

Topic(s)

• 0301 - Post-graduate research training grants

Call for proposal

Data not available

Funding Scheme

Data not available

Coordinator

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: Analytical Chemistry Lab ; 54006 Thessaloniki ; Greece
• Total cost: No data