Directory of Experts
Details for Professor Zafar Bashir
| Personal details | |
| Name | Professor Zafar Bashir |
| Job title | Professor of Cellular Neuroscience |
| Department | School of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience University of Bristol |
| Contact details | This expert can be contacted via the University of Bristol Public Relations
Office. To help us deal with your request, please mention the Directory of Experts when contacting the Public Relations Office. work+44 (0)117 331 8092 email: public-relations@bristol.ac.uk |
| Qualifications | B.Sc.(N'cle), Ph.D.(Glas.) |
| Professional details | |
| Keywords | Alzheimer's disease learning & memory cellular neuroscience recognition memory |
| Areas of expertise | Neurones of the brain communicate with one another at specialised junctions, called synapses, through the process of synaptic transmission. Having hundreds or thousands of synapses on individual neurones provides for immense complexity in neuronal signalling. However, a further degree of complexity comes about because the communication between neurones is extremely plastic. This means that the strength of synaptic transmission is not fixed but can be increased or decreased (a process called synaptic plasticity) and this property of synaptic plasticity is one of the crucial processes that enables the brain to learn and to retain memories. Therefore, understanding how synaptic transmission occurs and how it can be regulated and modified is essential if we are to understand the workings of the central nervous system and to understand the processes of learning and memory. |