| Abstract No.: | A-B1056 |
| Country: | Canada |
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| Title: | SEROTONIN AND MODULATION OF INFORMATION PROCESSING IN WEAKLY ELECTRIC FISH (APTERONOTUS LEPTORHYNCHUS) |
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| Authors/Affiliations: | 1 Tara Deemyad*; 1 Maurice J Chacron;
1 McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
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| Content: | Dysfunction in the serotonergic system has been suggested to be involved in the symptoms and pathology of variety of behavioral disorders. There is some evidence that serotonin is capable of altering the neural processing of sensory information. However, the cellular mechanisms by which this is achieved are not well understood. Weakly electric fish, due to simple and well characterized anatomy can be a suitable model for investigating such a mechanism. The electrosensory lateral line lobe (ELL) is the first and only terminal of the sensory afferent in electric fish. Whether or not serotonin plays a role in modulation electrical activity in ELL pyramidal cells is unknown. Therefore, we studied the effect of serotonin application on electrical activity of pyramidal cells. Serotonin increased burst firing in pyramidal cells followed by alteration of pattern of firing from tonic to phasic. This was achieved by a reduction of the spike afterhyperpolarization (AHP). Action potential amplitude and duration were not affected by serotonin. It has been shown that burst firing signal novelty and salient stimuli in whole animal studies. The nature of the currents affected by serotonin and the consequences for processing of sensory input will be discussed.
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