The role of dendrosomatic transmitter release in interneuronal communication

The current literature contains many studies addressing the ratios of volume and synaptic transmission in various neuronal systems in the mammalian brain. However, relatively few such studies in mollusks have been reported despite the fact that invertebrate mollusks have provided the impetus for developing the concept of extrasynaptic interneuronal transmission. We present here a brief review of our own and published data illustrating the role of extrasynaptic transmission and somatic transmitter release in communication between two neurons in the mollusk CNS. We came to the conclusion that the intensity of dendrosomatic transmitter release, if it occurs, is insufficient for transmission of signals from a single cell and operates only in conditions of summation of signals from a population of cells containing the same transmitter. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York.