Abstract
Giant synapses occur in four nuclei of the auditory brainstem. They are characterized by numerous active zones concentrated on the soma of the postsynaptic neuron and by rapid postsynaptic currents. At these sites, in the ventral cochlear nucleus, the medial and lateral nucleus of the trapezoid body and the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus, faithful preservation of the temporal relation of action potentials to the sound-intercellular precision-is of the utmost importance for neuronal function. The precision of action potential transfer is supported by the largely unimodal integration and homogeneity of the single postsynaptic compartment. Due to the much more rapid time constant of the synaptic currents compared with the membrane time constant, membrane capacitance dominates postsynaptic integration, enhancing precision of action potential generation. Taken together, the properties of these giant synapses reduce the temporal jitter of the transmission of information in these auditory circuits.
About the authors
Studied biology in Tübingen and Edinburgh. He received his Ph.D. from Eberhard-Karls University in Tübingen following research on the calyx of Held carried out at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysical Chemistry under the supervision Prof. Erwin Neher and Prof. Ralf Schneggenburger. After a short spell as a postdoc in the study group of Prof. Ralf Schneggenburger, he joined the working group headed by Prof. Wolfhard Almers at the Vollum Institute in Portland, USA, for 2 years. He then returned to Germany, Munich, where his postdoctoral studies during his appointment as a research assistant to Prof. Benedikt Grothe at Ludwig-Maximilians University, Division of Neurobiology. At present, Felix Felmy is head of an independent junior research group funded by the Elisabeth and Helmut Uhl Foundation at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich.
Studied biology at Ruhr University in Bochum. He received his doctoral degree from RWTH Aachen University with a dissertation on the development of auditory brainstem neurons written under the supervision of Prof. Harald Luksch. He then took up a position as a research assistant to Prof. Hermann Wagner at RWTH Aachen before continuing his postdoctoral training for 2 years at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam under Prof. Marcel van der Heijden and Prof. Gerard Borst. In 2011, he returned to RWTH Aachen as an assistant to Prof. Hermann Wagner, and has since headed a working group on cellular physiology of phase-coding neurons in avian and mammalian auditory brainstem circuits.
© 2017 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
