Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research

Cellular and molecular neuroscience examines how individual neurons communicate, adapt, and organize into functional circuits, with particular attention to the molecular events at synapses — the junctions where signals pass between cells. Much of this work centers on how excitatory glutamate receptors (especially NMDA receptors) and inhibitory GABAergic systems jointly regulate synaptic strength, and how structures like dendritic spines physically remodel in response to activity in a process called synaptic plasticity. Understanding these mechanisms matters because their disruption underlies conditions ranging from epilepsy and schizophrenia to Alzheimer's disease, and researchers are actively working out how non-neuronal cells like astrocytes participate in shaping transmission rather than merely supporting it. A central open question is how the precise balance of excitation and inhibition is maintained across dynamic neural circuits, and how long-term changes in synaptic connectivity — such as long-term potentiation — translate into cognition and become pathological when they go wrong.

Works

227,615

Total citations

8,664,644

Keywords

Synaptic PlasticityNeurotransmissionGABAergicGlutamate ReceptorsNeuronal CircuitsAstrocyte Function