An electrical impulse cannot directly cross the gap so a different mechanism has to be used. Between impulses the transmitter molecules are rapidly removed from the synaptic cleft to prevent ...

However, neurotransmitter release can also occur spontaneously, in an action potential–independent manner that is fundamental ...

Revealing the fundamental principles of how neural circuits are organized and operate is a key challenge in neuroscience. In the past 60 years, intensive effort has been invested in characterizing ...

When an electrical signal arrives at the presynaptic terminal, neurotransmitters are released from vesicles into the gap between neurons. The neurotransmitters then trigger an electrical signal in ...

Synapses are the connection points where neurons establish contact with each other to transmit information. For this ...

A fluorescent probe designed to incorporate a fluorophore into the structure of a neurotransmitter finds activity-dependent heterogeneity in dopamine release at individual synapses ...

They can also directly affect neurotransmitter activity at the synapses between neurons. Oligodendrocytes: provide structural support to the axons of neurons through a process called myelination.

Stay up to date on the latest science with Brush Up Summaries. Nerve cells, or neurons, are the basic functional units of the nervous system. Multiple interconnected neurons form a neural circuit and ...

The paper S. Holler et al., “Structure and function of a neocortical synapse,” Nature, doi:10.1038/s41586-020-03134-2, 2021. Brain cells use a language of ...

Recreational drugs can affect neurotransmitters in the reward pathway within the brain. They can act as either agonists or antagonists. Recreational drugs can also stimulate the release of ...