title: Paired turbulence and light do not produce a supralinear calcium increase in Hermissenda.
abstract: The sea slug Hermissenda learns to associate light and hair cell stimulation, but not when the stimuli are temporally uncorrelated. Memory storage, which requires an elevation in calcium, occurs in the photoreceptors, which receive monosynaptic input from hair cells that sense acceleration stimuli such as turbulence. Both light and hair cell activity increase calcium concentration in the photoreceptor, but it is unknown whether paired calcium signals combine supralinearly to initiate memory storage. A correlate of memory storage is an enhancement of the long lasting depolarization (LLD) after light offset, which is attributed to a reduction in voltage dependent potassium currents; however, it is unclear what causes the LLD in the untrained animal. These issues were addressed using a multi-compartmental computer model of phototransduction, calcium dynamics, and ionic currents of the Hermissenda photoreceptor. Simulations of the interaction between light and hair cell activity show that paired stimuli do not produce a greater calcium increase than unpaired stimuli. This suggests that hair cell activity is acting via some other pathway to initiate memory storage. In addition, simulations show that a potassium leak channel, which closes with an increase in calcium, is required to produce both the untrained LLD and the enhanced LLD due to the decrease in voltage dependent potassium currents. Thus, the expression of this correlate of classical conditioning may depend on a leak potassium current.
authors.affiliation: School of Computational Sciences, and the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, George Mason University, MS 2A1, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA. avrama@gmu.edu
authors.forename: Kim T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Blackwell
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019540:Area Under Curve; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism*; D020013:Calcium Signaling; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D006198:Hair Cells, Auditory / Q000502:physiology; D000072181:Inositol Polyphosphate 5-Phosphatases; D015640:Ion Channel Gating; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000502:physiology; D008027:Light; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000187:drug effects / Q000528:radiation effects; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D008974:Mollusca; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000187:drug effects / Q000528:radiation effects; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D010744:Phosphoric Monoester Hydrolases / Q000378:metabolism; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D010786:Photoreceptor Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000528:radiation effects; D017956:Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate; D011188:Potassium / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D015221:Potassium Channels / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000187:drug effects / Q000528:radiation effects; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D007473:Ion Channels; D015221:Potassium Channels; D005680:gamma-Aminobutyric Acid; D010744:Phosphoric Monoester Hydrolases; D000072181:Inositol Polyphosphate 5-Phosphatases; D011188:Potassium; D002118:Calcium