Talk:Synaptic gating

message: This page is being worked on for a neuroscience Wikipedia improvement project for the class BI481 at Boston College. The group members for this project are User:dbaush, User:stempera and User:rampreddy. Any input on our additions or suggestions for the topic would be much appreciated.   —Preceding undated comment added 02:49, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

message: *Overall I think this article is well written.  After reading the article I came away with a relatively large amount of information.  I did however find some things that I thought could be changed.  The first thing that came to mind was when you use quotation marks around words such as "gatekeeper".  I am not sure if this is the scientific term actually used in the scientific community.  I think you should use an appropriate term that has scientific meaning.  If these quoted words are actually used in the scientific community, then disregard that comment.  The next thing I noticed that could be expanded was when you talk about inhibition.  I noticed it was a major subtopic, but when I got to that area, it had little information.  If you could expand in this area, I think it will increase the value of the article.  Finally, I think the current research section needs to be expanded.  Right now there is only one sentence in this subtopic.  Maybe you could go into the experiments being done.  Overall the article is good, just need to look into those things in my opinion.  Hope this helps. Finnry (talk) 20:43, 6 April 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for the suggestions! You were right about the quotation marks--terms such as gatekeeper, up state and down state are the actual scientific terms, so we eliminated the quotations. In addition, we have expanded the current research section to include an intriguing application of gating to entire networks of neurons. We are still working on the inhibition section, but that is sure to be expanded as well. Stempera (talk) 02:04, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

text: Thanks for the input! We definitely needed to add a number of links, including synapse, so we have made those changes. We have also added a couple of images, so hopefully the concept is more clear. One of the images we created, and the other is an existing image of an electrical current. Also, good suggestion on the "main page" additions for schizophrenia. We also added it for ADHD. We didn't realize that we had to cite the same article multiple times, so we have added the additional citations. Thanks again! Stempera (talk) 02:04, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

text: Thanks for the suggestions! We have added a new section after the introduction of the origin of the synaptic gating model. It was based off of the idea of an electrical circuit and transmission of current. I think it will be a good reference point for people, especially for those who may not be as familiar with the topic. We have included in the "future research" section a new piece of research about bistable networks, as a larger application of bistable neurons and synaptic gating. Hopefully this gives some insight on some of the larger effects of synaptic gating--especially because it seems to be an area of current research. We will look into the specific areas where synaptic gating is most prevalent, and try to incorporate that in more detail in the introduction and perhaps other applicable subsections. Stempera (talk) 02:04, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

text: Thanks Kelley! We have looked into where the name "synaptic gating" came from--it comes from the comparison of a gated synapse to a electrical circuit, in which a transistor serves as a "gate". We added a section on this model of a gated synapse, so hopefully it will make the whole concept easier to understand. Currently, we are looking to expand the inhibitory and permissive gating sections, so we will definitely try to draw from some of the sources we already have so that the concepts are as clear as possible. We found some current research about synaptic gating on a larger scale in networks of neurons, so we included that in the current research section. It has been rather difficult to find extensive research and sources for synaptic gating, but we will make an effort to use the ones we have found to make a more coherent article. Stempera (talk) 02:04, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

text: We've gone through and linked up to as many of the physiological terms as possible. Unfortunately, due to the lack of research done on this topic some key terms - like bistable neurons - have no Wikipedia pages. We've also gone through and done editing so unnecessary and unclear sentences have been fixed. Our research section has also been substantially updated, but again, research in this area is very much lacking. Thanks for the input! Dbaush (talk) 16:28, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

text: All the sections where citations were needed have been updated and the final research section has been lengthened. We've also added many more in-text links to other pages and added a couple of images to help elaborate on certain topics. Thanks for the suggestions! Dbaush (talk) 16:28, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

text: Research in this field is highly limited so we've only been able to add so much to certain subsections. However, we've added citations to the areas that needed them and elaborated on the research section and the other subsections. The mechanisms by which synaptic gating occurs are not known, but we have added a couple of images to help give a better explanation of what it is and how it occurs. What we have in the disease section is all there is on the topic, but we have added more links to other pages throughout our article. Thanks for the help! Dbaush (talk) 16:28, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

text: The mechanisms through which the glutamate receptors give bistable neurons the ability to oscillate is not fully understood. We've elaborated as much as we can given the amount of research done on the topic. What we have on spatial attentions is all the research we were able to find. We've added citations and images and elaborated on the sections that were lacking in detail. Thanks for all of your help! Dbaush (talk) 16:28, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

text: Thanks for your suggestions. We have added two visual figures, one a very simple schematic of how synaptic gating should work in the brain, and the other is a picture of an electric circuit that illustrates an example of a transistor and thus the gating of electric circuits. We have also tried to make a better introduction that more completely explains the concepts and is more fluid. We found it difficult to pinpoint specific universities undergoing current research with this but the research on bistable networks in the future research section was done at the University of Wisconsin. Lastly, we have linked more neuroscience vocabulary to other wiki pages throughout the article.Rampreddy (talk) 00:57, 27 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Peer Review 

message: One thing I think is missing from this article is a brief discussion of gating in electronics, which is really the motivation for the idea of synaptic gating.  All modern electronic systems depend on gating, and the invention of circuit elements that could do gating was the key to the advance of electronics.  The earliest gating elements were relays, which were very slow because they depended on mechanical switching.  The invention of vacuum tubes was a huge advance, but they were bulky and consumed a lot of power.  The invention of transistors brought in a gating element that was fast, consumed little power, and could be miniaturized.  It would help this article, I think, to explain this background, and show a schematic picture of a transistor with its three leads -- input, output, and gate.
In electronics, gating is used in two basic ways.  First, it allows logic:  the gate can be used to switch a circuit between open and closed states.  Second, it allows amplification:  the gate can be used to throttle the level of current flowing from input to output.  When people speak of synaptic gating, they are usually trying to understand the function of a neural circuit in terms of either logical switching or amplification.
I will add a few other points presently. Looie496 (talk) 17:37, 11 April 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for the suggestions! Although we are not entirely familiar with the details of electronic circuits, we have done our best to outline the basics of this concept under the "Gated synapse model" heading. We appreciate any further additions or suggestions you have for expanding this topic. In particular, we are trying to locate an appropriate figure that will adequately describe the transistor.Stempera (talk) 02:55, 27 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Non-peer review 

message: Hi guys, nice job with the article, much better than before you started. A few issues:
*From the intro: "Bistable neurons have the ability to oscillate between a hyperpolarized (down state) and a polarized (up state) resting membrane potential without firing an action potential". This should probably state depolarized instead of just polarized.
*There are a few anatomical terms such as nucleus accumbens and hippocampus that should be hyperlinked to their respective WP articles, since you're discussing specific gating that takes place in those structures. 
NeuroJoe (talk) 01:43, 8 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: End of Boston College BI481 Project