Measuring the basic physiological properties of synapses

Abstract

Studying synaptic physiology remains an important endeavor for understanding the mechanisms that underlie neurotransmitter release as well as synaptic development and refinement. It is also critical to understanding brain function. The basic conceptual framework for synaptic physiology was worked out by Katz and colleagues and has coalesced around three factors: the number of releasable vesicles (N), the probability of release (P), and quantal size (Q). Here, I discuss a few key experiments related to these quantities and how they are assessed.