TY - JOUR
T1 - Gap junctions as electrical synapses
AU - Bennett, Michael V.L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work depended on numerous colleagues most of whose names can be found in the reference list; I am deeply indebted to them. Funding came from many NIH and NSF grants over the years, initially to Harry Grundfest. A major support for 26 years has been NS-07512. I am the Sylvia and Robert S. Olnick, Professor of Neuroscience.
PY - 1997
Y1 - 1997
N2 - Gap junctions are the morphological substrate of one class of electrical synapse. The history of the debate on electrical vs. chemical transmission is instructive. One lesson is that Occam's razor sometimes cuts too deep; the nervous system does its operations in a number of different ways and a unitarian approach can lead one astray. Electrical synapses can do many things that chemical synapses can do, and do them just as slowly. More intriguing are the modulatory actions that chemical synapses can have on electrical synapses. Voltage dependence provides an important window on structure function relations of the connexins, even where the dependence may have no physiological role. The new molecular approaches will greatly advance our knowledge of where gap junctions occur and permit experimental manipulation with high specificity.
AB - Gap junctions are the morphological substrate of one class of electrical synapse. The history of the debate on electrical vs. chemical transmission is instructive. One lesson is that Occam's razor sometimes cuts too deep; the nervous system does its operations in a number of different ways and a unitarian approach can lead one astray. Electrical synapses can do many things that chemical synapses can do, and do them just as slowly. More intriguing are the modulatory actions that chemical synapses can have on electrical synapses. Voltage dependence provides an important window on structure function relations of the connexins, even where the dependence may have no physiological role. The new molecular approaches will greatly advance our knowledge of where gap junctions occur and permit experimental manipulation with high specificity.
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U2 - 10.1023/A:1018560803261
DO - 10.1023/A:1018560803261
M3 - Review article
C2 - 9278865
AN - SCOPUS:0030854764
SN - 0300-4864
VL - 26
SP - 349
EP - 366
JO - Journal of Neurocytology
JF - Journal of Neurocytology
IS - 6
ER -