Synapse as a Multi-component and Multi-level Information System

Abstract

Synapse, as it is known, consists of presynaptic and postsynaptic parts. In many brain cells, particularly in the cortex and the hippocampus, a postsynaptic part presents a small membrane protrusion on the surface of the dendrite - a dendritic spine. The dendritic spine is partly an isolated structure, but it is associated functionally with other spines of dendritic shaft as well as through the vesicular system with the soma of neuron. The main task of the spine interactome is not only to receive a signal from a presynaptic cell, but also to react to it by opening/closing the ion channels, thus ensuring its transmission to the axon. The interactome of spine is primarily a detector of environmental signals and through the remodeling of the system of its macro-complexes it recognizes and remembers the pattern of the signal.