Table 1.

Parameters used in the model

Parameter Definition Value Reference
R Gas constant 8.315 JK-1 mol-1
T Absolute temperature 303 K
F Faraday constant 9.65 104 C mol-1
e Elementary charge 1.60 10-19 C
NA Avogadro number 6.02 1023 mol-1
Vsp Spine volume 0.08 fL Harris and Stevens (1989)
Pca/PM NMDA-R permeability of Ca2+/Permeability of monovalent ions 3.6 Spruston et al. (1995)
γ Conductance of monovalent ions 46 pS Spruston et al. (1995)
[M+] Concentration of monovalent ions 130 mm
[Ca2+]ex External [Ca2+] 2.0 mm
kex Ca2+ clearance rate constant in the absence of Ca2+ buffer 1.6 msec-1 Sabatini et al. (2002)
Ki Endogenous buffer capacity 20 Sabatini et al. (2002)
Kd Dissociation constant of dye 0.5 μm for Fluo-4 Oertner et al. (2002)
9.7 μm for Fluo-4FF Molecular Probes Handbook of Fluorescent Probes and Research Products
[dye]Total Total dye added 150 μm for Fluo-4
500 μm for Fluo-4FF
Po Open probability 0.3 Dzubay and Jahr (1996)
τPoisson Average open time 100 msec Figure 2E