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Neurotransmission at chemical synapses & Excitory and inhibitory potentials

By: HWC, Views: 7645

• A series of events occur at chemical synapses in order to communicate with the adjacent cell. • The action potential arrives at the presynaptic membrane. • The depolarization phase of the action potential opens voltage gated Ca+ channels. • increased inflow of Ca+' into the cyto...

Summation - defined, spatial, temporal & AP generation or not

By: HWC, Views: 7645

If several presynaptic end bulbs release their neurotransmitter at about the same time, the combined effect may generate a nerve impulse due to summation Summation may be spatial or temporal • A typical neuron may have thousands of synapses. A corresponding number of postsynaptic membrane ...

Requirements for nervous signals

By: HWC, Views: 7678

• The function of neurons is to allow communication between cells, thereby maintaining homeostasis. • Electrical signals, called membrane potentials, travel along the membranes of the neurons. • Voltage variability and distance traveled determine the type of nervous signal. 1. Graded...

Chemical Synapse Animation

By: HWC, Views: 5090

A neuromuscular junction is a chemical synapse between the axon endings of a motor neuron and a muscle cell. A narrow synaptic cleft separates the presynaptic cell (the motor neuron) from the postsynaptic cell (the muscle cell). The presynaptic cell contains vesicles filled with neurotransmitt...

Action potentials - electrical characteristics and generation

By: HWC, Views: 7567

• An action potential is the nervous impulse or signal for long distance communication. Each action potential is generated at the cell's trigger zone. • Action potentials are considered an all-or-nothing phenomena because they are either generated or not. • The generation of an action...

Conduction of action potentials

By: HWC, Views: 7883

• Action potentials must be rapidly conducted over long distances in order for the nervous system to communicate with other cells. • Propagation of an action potential uses processes similar to those that generate the potential at the trigger zone. • a When a graded potential reaches ...

Graded potentials - electrical characteristics and types

By: HWC, Views: 7981

• A graded potential occurs when a gated channel is opened or closed, altering ion flow through the membrane. • Changes in ion and charge distributions cause voltage changes to the resting membrane potential. • The strength of the stimulus determines the number of gated channels affect...

Neurosynapse Animation

By: Administrator, Views: 10684

In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that permits a neuron (or nerve cell) to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another neuron or to the target effector cell. Synapses are essential to neuronal function: neurons are cells that are specialized to pass signals to individual tar...

Types of synapses - electrical & chemical

By: HWC, Views: 7817

• Neurons communicate with one another or effector cells via synapses that allow information to be filtered and integrated. • The two types of synapses are: • electrical • chemical. • Electrical synapses, also known as gap junctions, contain many ion channels (connexons) conne...