User talk:Atcovi/Spring2024/Psyc 410 Human Cognition/Ch. 2

Discovery Lab: Synaptic Transmission (notes)

 * We sense, perceive, think, feel and act because of neurons. Synapses separate each neuron from each other, preventing the dendrites of one neuron and the axons of another neuron from touching. Neurons communicate across synapses through a process called synaptic transmission (ST).
 * Information travelling, prior to synaptic transmission beginning: dendrite --> axon --[1]--> axon terminal (end of axon) --> ST begins!

Increased Detail

 * Presynaptic neuron, the signal-sending neuron, and the postsynaptic neuron, the signal-recieving neuron.
 * 1: Action potential at axon terminal of sending neuron --> calcium gets the vesicles fusing with sending neuron's cell membrane, vessels arrive, release neurotransmitters into synapse --> neurotransmitters bind with specific receptors (that accept its shape) on the dendrites of the recieving neuron --> MESSAGE CONVEYED --> neurotransmitters released from receptors in the synaptic space.
 * Some of these neurotransmitters may be further broken down by enzymes (acetylcholinesterase)/reabsorbed by sending neuron.

—Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 20:12, 22 January 2024 (UTC)