Editor's Pick: Sensory Adaptation

Reviewing Editor Christina Zelano, Ph.D. selected this paper and explains why she considers it noteworthy.

Adaptation is a ubiquitous feature of sensory receptor cells. For those receptor cells that generate action potentials, adaptation is not only manifested as reduced transduction potentials at the transduction level but also as a reduced spike rate at the level of output.

The authors show that voltage-gated sodium channels in vomeronasal sensory neurons undergo slow inactivation and demonstrate that slow inactivation of voltage-gated sodium channels can contribute to the spike adaption caused by repeated stimuli. The work expands our understanding of sensory adaptation.

Read the full article:

Slow Inactivation of Sodium Channels Contributes to Short-Term Adaptation in Vomeronasal Sensory Neurons
Nicole Sarno, Andres Hernandez-Clavijo, Anna Boccaccio, Anna Menini and Simone Pifferi