A textbook assumption about the brain’s most abundant receptors needs to be rewritten

The AMPA group of brain receptors have mostly been assumed to be calcium impermeable and so were not thought to contribute to the calcium-dependent mechanisms underlying learning and memory. Observations of calcium permeability in some AMPA-receptor subtypes now overturn those assumptions about these receptors’ properties and their roles in neuronal communication. Neuronal AMPA receptors previously assumed to be calcium impermeable are unexpectedly shown to transport calcium ions.