Possible mechanism of flicking-induced short-term plasticity in retinal cone-LHC synapse: a computational study

In retinal cone-HC synapse, it has been found that repetitive stimulation could induce postsynaptic short-term responsiveness enhancement. However, the detailed mechanism underlying this short-term plasticity in the retinal graded neurons remains unclear. In this study, based on an ion-channel model described using Hodgkin--Huxley equations, the possible mechanism of repetitive-stimulation-induced short-term plasticity in the synapse between retinal cones and horizontal cells was investigated. The computational simulation results, together with evidence from experimental observations, suggest that the short-term modification of signal transmission between the retinal graded neurons is likely to be attributed to the regulatory effects that calcium-dependent process exerts on the single-channel properties of the postsynaptic AMPA receptors.