Article in press - uncorrected proof BioMol Concepts, Vol. 2 (2011), pp. 247–259 • Copyright ᮊ by Walter de Gruyter • Berlin • Boston. DOI 10.1515/BMC.2011.026 Review Intrinsic neuronal excitability: implications for health and disease Rajiv Wijesinghe and Aaron J. Camp* Changes associated with the efficacy of excitatory or inhib- Discipline of Biomedical Science, School of Medical itory connections have been defined under two major head- Sciences, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, ings: long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression L226, Cumberland Campus C42, East St. Lidcombe, (LTD), characterized by sustained increases or decreases in NSW 1825, Australia synaptic strength, respectively (1). Both LTP and LTD have generated much interest because evidence has shown that * Corresponding author similar synaptic changes can be induced following behav- e-mail:
[email protected] ioral training, and that learning is impeded following LTP/ LTD interference (3, 4) wfor review, see (2, 5)x. Although synaptic mechanisms are clearly important reg- Abstract ulators of neuronal excitability, intrinsic membrane proper- ties also impinge on neuronal input/output functions. For The output of a single neuron depends on both synaptic example, in vivo, the input/output function of rat motor cor- connectivity and intrinsic membrane properties. Changes in tex neurons can be modified by conditioning with a short both synaptic and intrinsic membrane properties have been burst of APs (6). In vitro, this modification can be related to observed during homeostatic processes (e.g., vestibular com- changes in the number or kinetics of voltage-gated ion chan- pensation) as well as in several central nervous system nels present in the plasma membrane in a compartment- (CNS) disorders.