Solution to the neurochemical challenge

An analysis to find a solution to address a neurochemical challenge by calculating the average time for a molecule to diffuse the required distance is addressed. The time taken by an average molecule to diffuse 5 μm is calculated by using a diffusion coefficient and a distance of 5μm. The sensors should respond to concentration changes on the time scale to detect individual release events. The average concentration for the molecules in the vesicle of the sampled volume is calculated. To detect the neurotransmitter, vesicles with a detection limit of 40 nmol L¹ are released. The solution is obtained by using Poisson distribution. Three release events are required to detect neurotransmitter A with a probability of 0.013, while detection of Neurotransmitter B requires five vesicles with a probability of 0.036. The use of Poisson distribution along with 100 simulations would provide 50 events with Neurotransmitter A and 200 with Neurotransmitter B.