ABSTRACT
Cellular and subcellular neuroscience is the realm of action potentials, selectively permeable membranes, enzymes, voltage-gated ion channels, intra-neuronal molecular signaling, second messengers, and configured proteins. There exists a professional society, the Molecular and Cellular Cognition Society, with over 800 members worldwide from more than 100 laboratories conducting research on the molecular and cellular basis of cognitive function. Released dopamine binds to post-synaptic receptors that activate an intracellular G-protein complex, priming adenylyl and adenylate cyclase molecules to convert adenosine triphosphate into cellular energy and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). In the mid-1990s Ted Abel, working in Eric Kandel’s lab, developed a transgenic mouse that over-expressed a regulatory subunit (R) of protein kinase A (PKA). The cAMP molecules bind to PKA R subunits, freeing catalytic PKA subunits. Molecular and cellular cognition clearly is a reductionistic field of current neuro-science. But that feature in no way precludes its use of higher level cognitive science and scientists.
