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    Brain Brief Synapse Final

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    veerraju tv
    The synapse is the small gap between neurons where neurotransmission occurs, allowing brain cells to communicate. There may be as many as 150 trillion synapses in the human brain. At the synapse, neurotransmitters are released from the presynaptic neuron and received by receptors on the postsynaptic neuron, transmitting signals between cells and enabling processes like learning and memory. While tiny at 20-40 nanometers wide, synapses allow for bidirectional communication between neurons that is critical to cognitive functions.

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    Brain Brief Synapse Final

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    veerraju tv
    45 views2 pages
    The synapse is the small gap between neurons where neurotransmission occurs, allowing brain cells to communicate. There may be as many as 150 trillion synapses in the human brain. At the synapse, neurotransmitters are released from the presynaptic neuron and received by receptors on the postsynaptic neuron, transmitting signals between cells and enabling processes like learning and memory. While tiny at 20-40 nanometers wide, synapses allow for bidirectional communication between neurons that is critical to cognitive functions.

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    The synapse is the small gap between neurons where neurotransmission occurs, allowing brain cells to communicate. There may be as many as 150 trillion synapses in the human brain. At the synapse, neurotransmitters are released from the presynaptic neuron and received by receptors on the postsynaptic neuron, transmitting signals between cells and enabling processes like learning and memory. While tiny at 20-40 nanometers wide, synapses allow for bidirectional communication between neurons that is critical to cognitive functions.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    45 views2 pages

    Brain Brief Synapse Final

    Uploaded by

    veerraju tv
    The synapse is the small gap between neurons where neurotransmission occurs, allowing brain cells to communicate. There may be as many as 150 trillion synapses in the human brain. At the synapse, neurotransmitters are released from the presynaptic neuron and received by receptors on the postsynaptic neuron, transmitting signals between cells and enabling processes like learning and memory. While tiny at 20-40 nanometers wide, synapses allow for bidirectional communication between neurons that is critical to cognitive functions.

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    BRAIN BRIEFS

    Neurotransmission: The Synapse


    The brain is responsible for every thought, feeling, and Current estimates are listed somewhere around 0.15
    action. But how do the billions of cells that reside in the quadrillion synapses—or 150,000,000,000,000
    brain manage these feats? synapses.

    They do so through a process called neurotransmission. What is synaptic transmission?


    Simply stated, neurotransmission is the way that brain cells
    communicate. And the bulk of those communications Generally speaking, it’s just another way to say
    occur at a site called the synapse. Neuroscientists now neurotransmission. But it specifies that the communication
    understand that the synapse plays a critical role in a occurring between brain cells is happening at the synapse
    variety of cognitive processes—especially those involved as opposed to some other communication point. One
    with learning and memory. neuron, often referred to as the pre-synaptic cell, will
    release a neurotransmitter or other neurochemical from
    What is a synapse? special pouches clustered near the cell membrane called
    synaptic vesicles into the space between cells. Those
    The word synapse stems from the Greek words molecules will then be taken up by membrane receptors on
    “syn” (together) and “haptein” (to clasp). This might make the post-synaptic, or neighboring, cell. When this message
    you think that a synapse is where brain cells touch or is passed between the two cells at the synapse, it has the
    fasten together, but that isn’t quite right. The synapse, power to change the behavior of both cells. Chemicals
    rather, is that small pocket of space between two cells, from the pre-synaptic neuron may excite the post-synaptic
    where they can pass messages to communicate. A single cell, telling it to release its own neurochemicals. It may tell
    neuron may contain thousands of synapses. In fact, one the post-synaptic cell to slow down signaling or stop it all
    type of neuron called the Purkinje cell, found in the brain’s together. Or it may simply tell it to change the message a
    cerebellum, may have as many as one hundred thousand bit. But synapses offer the possibility of bi-directional
    synapses. communication. As such, post-synaptic cells can send back
    their own messages to pre-synaptic cells—telling them to
    How big is a synapse? change how much or how often a neurotransmitter is
    released.
    Synapses are tiny—you cannot see them with the
    naked eye. When measured using sophisticated tools,
    scientists can see that the small gaps between cells is
    approximately 20-40 nanometers wide. If you consider
    that the thickness of a single sheet of paper is about
    100,000 nanometers wide, you can start to understand
    just how small these functional contact points between
    neurons really are. More than 3,000 synapses would fit in
    that space alone!

    How many synapses are in the human brain?

    The short answer is that neuroscientists aren’t exactly


    sure. It’s very hard to measure in living human beings. But
    current post-mortem studies, where scientists examine the
    brains of deceased individuals, suggest that the average
    male human brain contains about 86 billion neurons. If
    each neuron is home to hundreds or even thousands of
    synapses, the estimated number of these communication
    points must be in the trillions.
    www.dana.org

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