Autocatalytic membrane conductance and memory

A basic characteristic of biological memory is that it has a graded duration, which, even for so-called short-term memory, can vary from minutes to days (i.e. over about three orders of magnitude), depending on the training protocol, which one can think of as determining the "strength" of the memory. Furthermore, the molecular analysis of simple learning in invertebrates has revealed many examples where "learning" is produced by a decrease in an appropriate membrane conductance. This paper provides a quantitative analysis of a simple kinetic scheme whereby a conductance decrease can be produced by repetitive nerve impulses, with a duration that varies with stimulus frequency. The simplest model considered is based on the actual kinetics of the naturally-occurring ionophore Monazomycin. This model yields durations ranging only over a factor of about 10, for reasonable parameter values. However, a simple modification of the model yields memory durations ranging over three or more orders of magnitude. We also show that Monazomycin-like kinetics can appear as the result of a combination of simple uni- and bi-molecular reactions, thus making more plausible the possibility that the effects described here may operate in actual biological systems.