synapse
Sign in to saveright|thumb|400px|Diagram of a chemical synaptic connection
AI overview
I don't have sufficient context to write an accurate overview. The provided material only shows an image caption indicating there is a diagram of a chemical synaptic connection, but contains no explanatory text about what a synapse is or why it matters. To write an accurate, fact-based overview, I would need contextual information that actually defines and explains synapses.
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Article
18 sectionsContents
- History
- Types
- Excitatory and inhibitory
- Interfaces
- Conversion of chemical into electrical signals
- Release of neurotransmitters
- Synaptic polarization
- Presynaptic modulation
- Effects of drugs on ligand-gated ion channels
- Biogenesis
- Role in memory
- Potentiation and depression
- Mechanism of protein kinase
- Experimental models
- Synapses and diseases
- Additional images
- See also
- References
right|thumb|400px|Diagram of a chemical synaptic connection
In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that allows a neuron (or nerve cell) to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another neuron or a target effector cell. Synapses can be classified as either chemical or electrical, depending on the mechanism of signal transmission between neurons. In the case of electrical synapses, neurons are coupled bidirectionally with each other through gap junctions and have a connected cytoplasmic milieu. These types of synapses are known to produce synchronous network activity in the brain, but can also result in complicated, chaotic network level dynamics. Therefore, signal directionality cannot always be defined across electrical synapses.