A kinetic model unifying presynaptic short-term facilitation and depression.

Short-term facilitation and depression refer to the increase and decrease of synaptic strength under repetitive stimuli within a timescale of milliseconds to seconds. This phenomenon has been attributed to primarily presynaptic mechanisms such as calcium-dependent transmitter release and presynaptic vesicle depletion. Previous modeling studies that aimed to integrate the complex short-term facilitation and short-term depression data derived from varying synapses have relied on computer simulation or abstract mathematical approaches.