Mechanisms of stationary voltage fluctuation in the neuromuscular junction endplate and corresponding denoising paradigms.

ABSTRACT

The neuromuscular junction (NMJ) has an elaborate anatomy to ensure agile and accurate signal transmission. Based on our formerly obtained expressions of the thermal and conductance induced voltage fluctuations, in this paper, the mechanisms underlying the conductance-induced voltage fluctuation are characterized from two aspects the scaling laws with respect to either of the two system-size factors, the number of receptors or the membrane area; and the "seesaw effect" with respect to the intensive parameter, the concentration of acetylcholine. According to these mechanisms, several aspects of the NMJ anatomy are explained from a denoising perspective. Finally, the power spectra of the two types of voltage fluctuations are characterized by their specific scaling laws, based on which we explain why the endplate noise has the low-frequency property that is described by the term "seashell sound".