The effect of buffered calcium diffusion on neurotransmitter release

Calcium plays a major role in inter-neuron communication. It has recently been observed that the scaling relationship between extracellular calcium concentration and postsynaptic response is different depending on the channel through which calcium enters the presynaptic neuron. Experiments suggest that the two types of calcium channels probed in this regard are at different mean distances from the neurotransmitter-containing vesicles. In this work we investigate whether the effect of calcium buffers along the path from the channel to the vesicle sensor can be responsible for the differences observed. Our results show that buffers cannot account for this change. This study also allows us to probe the limitations of the rapid buffering approximation in the presence of strong and localized sources.