Neural Facilitation

Neural facilitation, also known as paired pulse facilitation (PPF), is a phenomenon in neuroscience in which postsynaptic potentials (PSPs) (EPPs or EPSPs) evoked by an impulse are increased when that impulse closely follows a prior impulse. PPF is thus a form of short-term synaptic plasticity. The mechanisms underlying neural facilitation are exclusively pre-synaptic; broadly speaking, PPF arises due to increased presynaptic Ca2+ concentration leading to a greater release of neurotransmitter-containing synaptic vesicles. Neural facilitation may be involved in several neuronal tasks, including simple learning, information processing, and sound-source localization.