Frequency selectivity of synaptic exocytosis in frog saccular hair cells.

ABSTRACT: The ability to respond selectively to particular frequency components of sensory inputs is fundamental to signal processing in the ear. The frog (Rana pipiens) sacculus, which is used for social communication and escape behaviors, is an exquisitely sensitive detector of sounds and ground-borne vibrations in the 5- to 200-Hz range, with most afferent axons having best frequencies between 40 and 60 Hz. We monitored the synaptic output of saccular sensory receptors (hair cells) by measuring the increase in membrane capacitance (deltaC(m)) that occurs when synaptic vesicles fuse with the plasmalemma. Strong stepwise depolarization evoked an exocytic burst that lasted 10 ms and corresponded to the predicted capacitance of all docked vesicles at synapses, followed by a 20-ms delay before additio

SUBMITTER: Rutherford MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1413814 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature