Scientific Understanding of Consciousness
Consciousness as an Emergent Property of Thalamocortical Activity

 

Short-Term Memory — Synaptic Facilitation Diagram

(Eric Kandel, In Search of  Memory, 229)

 

Biochemical steps in short-term memory

· A shock to the tail of Aplysia activates an interneuron that releases the chemical messenger serotonin into the synapse.

· After crossing the synaptic ceft, serotonin binds to a receptor on the sensory neuron, leading to production of cyclic AMP (1).

· Cyclic AMP frees the catalytic unit of protein kinase A (2).

· The catalytic unit of protein kinase A enhances the release of the neurotransmitter glutamate (3).

Return to — Declarative Memory Classifications