Scientists could reveal part of the mechanism of how the antidepressant ketamine works: A potassium channel changes after treatment with ketamine in a subpopulation of neurons in the hippocampus. Activation of this channel increases ketamine’s antidepressant-like effects. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (MPIP) in Munich and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel discovered this in collaboration with researchers from the Helmholtz Zentrum, Munich, using the mouse as a model system. Regarding clinical application the results suggest new targets for future antidepressants as well as new combinations of existing drugs.