Neural and synaptic transmission

Neural & Synaptic Transmission The nervous system is made up of neurons and glila cells. Neurons are the basic communication links in the nervous system. Glila cell provide support for neurons and contribute to communication. Neurons normally transmit a neural impulse (an electric current) along an axon to a synapse with another neuron. The neural impulse is a brief change in neuron’s electrical charge that moves along an axon. It is an all-or-none event. Action potential triggers the release of chemicals called neurotransmitters that diffuse across the synapse to communicate with other neurons. Transmitters bind with receptors in the postsynaptic cell membrane, causing excitatory or inhibitory PSPs. Most neurons are linked in neural pathway, circuits, and networks. In the nervous system, the neural impulse functions as a signal. For that signal to have any meaning for the system as a whole, it must be transmitted from the neuron to other cell. As noted above, this transmission takes place at special junction called Synapses, which depend on chemical messengers. To explain in another way neural impulses are electro chemical events. When Neurons stimulated beyond threshold level, there is a rapid shift in its polarity from negative to positive charge. This reversal of charge, called an action potential or neural impulse, is generated along the length of the axon to the terminal buttons. When neural impulse reaches the terminal button, it triggers the release of neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers that carry the message across the synapse to neighboring neurons. Neurotransmitters can have either excitatory or inhibitory effect to the neurons at which they dock. Example: The educational and childcare reformers who have used brain science as the base for their campaigns have primarily cited to key findings: the discovery of critical period in neural development and the demonstration that rats raised in