Synaptic clearance of neurotransmitter and asymptotic reduction of neuroscience models

Document Type

Presentation Abstract

Presentation Date

4-17-2007

Abstract

Chemical signaling in the brain involves electrically triggered release of neurotransmitter from presynaptic nerve terminals. The neurotransmitter then diffuses across a 20 nm wide synaptic cleft and is detected and converted back into electrical signals by receptors on the postsynaptic neuron. Glutamate is the most abundant neurotransmitter, and specific transporter proteins in cell membranes mediate its uptake following release. Transporters modulate the time course of signaling, so characterizing their functional kinetics and mechanism may shed light on fundamental properties of brain function. The first part of the presentation will describe some techniques for measuring transport and the second part will describe the development of models of transporter function. Neuroscience models are generally extremely complex and contain a large number of parameters that must be determined using experimental data. One of the questions that often arises may be formulated as follows: How can one find a model with the minimal number of parameters that can be reliably estimated from the available data. We will discuss the general idea of asymptotic model reduction approach that addresses this question. We will illustrate this general idea with a particular example of a complex model reduction.

Additional Details

One of two presentations given during this session. The other presentation was "Asymptotic reduction of neuroscience models" by Leonid Kalachev.

Tuesday, 17 April 2007
4:10 p.m. in Math 109

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