short-term sensitization it releases more neurotransmitter. That neurotransmitter, we later discovered, is glutamate, also the major excitatory transmitter in the mammalian brain. By increasing the amount of glutamate a sensory cell sends to a motor cell, sensitization strengthens the synaptic potential elicited in the motor cell, thus making it easier for that neuron to fire an action potential and cause the gill to withdraw.
