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Nature 415, 277-278 (17 January 2002) | doi:10.1038/415277a

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Molecular neurobiology: Priming plasticity

Lynn E. Dobrunz1 & Craig C Garner1

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Nerve cells communicate by using chemical messengers, which are released from neurons after a 'priming' step. It seems that priming may be key to controlling the strength of chemical transmission.

The roots of cognition, behaviour, learning and memory are embedded in the brain's intricate network of nerve cells and their specialized points of contact, the synapses. Synapses can convert electrical impulses into chemical signals and back again, as well as modulate the strength of the transmitted signals.

  1. Lynn E. Dobrunz and Craig C. Garner are in the Department of Neurobiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama 35294, USA.
    e-mails: Email: dobrunz@nrc.uab.edu and Email: garner@nrc.uab.edu