Figure 8.

Integration of multiple neuronal inputs by the innervated cardiomyocyte. (A) Recent advancements in imaging cardiac sympathetic innervation demonstrate that each CM interacts with multiple contacts from the same neuronal process (each varicosity is highlighted by one color) and may simultaneously be innervated by different neurons (two neurons in the picture are represented by filled or half-filled circles, respectively). (B) We thus made the hypothesis that activation of increasing number of varicosities, and recruitment of more neuronal processes, may allow grading of the responses of target cells from basal to maximal activation, across a wide range of intermediate effects. Modified with permission from Zaglia and Mongillo (2017).