Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Synapse. Diagram of a chemical synaptic connection. In the nervous system, a synapse[ 1] 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 the transmission of nervous impulses from one neuron to another, [ 2] playing a key ...
Chemical synapses allow neurons to form circuits within the central nervous system. They are crucial to the biological computations that underlie perception and thought. They allow the nervous system to connect to and control other systems of the body. At a chemical synapse, one neuron releases neurotransmitter molecules into a small space (the ...
Neuromuscular junction. A neuromuscular junction (or myoneural junction) is a chemical synapse between a motor neuron and a muscle fiber. [1] It allows the motor neuron to transmit a signal to the muscle fiber, causing muscle contraction . Muscles require innervation to function—and even just to maintain muscle tone, avoiding atrophy.
An electrical synapse is a mechanical and electrically conductive synapse, a functional junction between two neighboring neurons. The synapse is formed at a narrow gap between the pre- and postsynaptic neurons known as a gap junction. At gap junctions, such cells approach within about 3.8 nm of each other, [1] a much shorter distance than the ...
Synaptogenesis is the formation of synapses between neurons in the nervous system. Although it occurs throughout a healthy person's lifespan, an explosion of synapse formation occurs during early brain development, known as exuberant synaptogenesis. [1] Synaptogenesis is particularly important during an individual's critical period, during ...
A neuron, neurone, [1] or nerve cell is an excitable cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network in the nervous system. Neurons communicate with other cells via synapses, which are specialized connections that commonly use minute amounts of chemical neurotransmitters to pass the electric signal from the ...
For the general concept of brain plasticity, see neuroplasticity and Synaptic stabilization. Synaptic plasticity rule for gradient estimation by dynamic perturbation of conductances. In neuroscience, synaptic plasticity is the ability of synapses to strengthen or weaken over time, in response to increases or decreases in their activity. [1]
The active zone or synaptic active zone is a term first used by Couteaux and Pecot-Dechavassinein in 1970 to define the site of neurotransmitter release. Two neurons make near contact through structures called synapses allowing them to communicate with each other. As shown in the adjacent diagram, a synapse consists of the presynaptic bouton of ...