In silico : controlling the late phase of long term facilitation in the aplysia californica - a spatio-temporal stochastic simulation.

Abstract

Learning and Memory is a complex physiological process. It has therefore taken the work of many researchers to elucidate the molecular mechanism of memory. A few prominent researchers have spent the last decades of their careers, successfully pinpointing, with broad-like brushes, the mechanism towards acquiring memory. Short–term and long-term memory are a mysterious feature in human psychology. Researchers like Eric R. Kandel, have shown that the facilitation of short term to long term memory requires protein synthesis (or the activation of the transcription and translation mechanism). It is postulated that this conversion to long term memory requires a switch-like mechanism. One such mathematical model that explains how the dynamics of autoregulation is achieved in the interlocked positive and negative feedback loop. Another component is the switch-like mechanism found by modeling a signaling repressor molecule. This paper will present to you how the PKA, Ca2+ and MAPK signaling systems may control the transcription and translational machinery in the postsynaptic neuron. In addition, we simulate the network with a spatio-temporal simulator, Smoldyn, to draw attention to some of the likely parameters that can cause fast transition states.