Neurotransmitters
What are neurons and what do they do? A. Neurons 1. There are two main cell types in the nervous system. a. Neurons are specialized to respond rapidly to signals ...
Schizophrenia
One of the defining characteristics of advanced organisms is the ability to make flexible, yet adaptive responses to environmental stimuli. These stimuli may aris...
Brain Response Behavior
Neurons connect and share information through an electrochemical procedure. They receive chemical messages through their dendrites. When they receive enough of th...
No Title 13976
Neurons have specialized projections called dendrites and axons. Dendrites bring information to the cell body and axons take information away from the cell body. Information from one neuron flows to another neuron across a synapse. The synapse is a small gap separating neurons. The synapse consists of: Apresynaptic ending that contains neurotransmitters, mitochondria and other cell organelles, A postsynaptic ending that contains receptor sites for neurotransmitters and, synaptic cleft or space between the presynaptic and postsynaptic endings.
The neurotransmitter molecules diffuse across the synaptic cleft where they can bind with receptor sites on the postsynaptic ending to influence the electrical response in the postsynaptic neuron. Synapses can occur on axons (axoaxonic synapse) and cell bodies (axosomatic synapse). When a neurotransmitter binds to a receptor on the postsynaptic side of the synapse, it changes the postsynaptic cell's excitability: it makes the postsynaptic cell either more or less likely to fire an action potential. If the number of excitatory postsynaptic events is large enough, they will add to cause an action potential in the postsynaptic cell and a continuation of the
