What so good about being a researcher is...

that you can have this kind of moment.
Seeing something new for the first time in the whole world.



Here I poked an axon of an interneuron that has never been identified (lower trace); it produces huge excitatory synaptic potentials in a motor neuron (upper trace).

My latest paper published

My paper, "State-, Timing-, and Pattern-Dependent Neuromodulation of Synaptic Strength by a Serotonergic Interneuron" with Paul Katz is out in the Journal of Neuroscience.

By studying sea slug's brain, we described that the strength of synaptic transmission is controled by its own activity level and by a neuromodulatory input. These two types of synaptic plasticity interact with each other to produce complex and dynamic changes in the strength of the synapse. Such changes may play important roles in configuration of neural circuit to produce specific motor outputs.

Although the development of techniques using brain slice preparations had made a great advance in our knowledge of synaptic plasticity, I am hoping that this paper shows that researches in invertebrate neuroscience are still front runners in the field of synaptic plasticity in motor control and behavior.