Measuring the Basic Physiological Properties of Synapses
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 9, 2026

Evaluation of Synapse Density in Hippocampal Rodent Brain Slices
Published on: October 6, 2017
1Department of Biological Sciences, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York 14260.
Abstract:
Studying synaptic physiology remains an important endeavor for understanding the mechanisms that underlie neurotransmitter release as well as synaptic development and refinement. It is also critical to understanding brain function. The basic conceptual framework for synaptic physiology was worked out by Katz and colleagues and has coalesced around three factors: the number of releasable vesicles (N), the probability of release (P), and quantal size (Q). Here, I discuss a few key experiments related to these quantities and how they are assessed.
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