PSY 324 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Catecholamine, Methadone, Metabolic Pathway
6 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
The concept of the synapse: neurons communicate by transmitting chemicals at junctions, called synapses , sherrington inferred the major properties of synapses through behavioural observation. In the late 1800"s, ramon y cajal demonstrated gaps between neurons. In 1906, charles scott sherrington coined the term synapse to describe this gap. The properties of synapses: sherrington investigated how neurons communicate with each other by studying reflexes (automatic muscular responses to stimuli, example, leg flexion reflex: The properties of synapses: reflexes are slower than conduction along an axon, difference must be accounted for by the time it takes for signal to cross gap between neurons. The properties of synapses: as one set of muscles relaxes, another set becomes excited, stimulation can cause inhibition of certain responses (as well as excitation) Presynaptic events: neuron synthesizes neurotransmitters (nts), stored in synaptic vesicles, action potential causes voltage-gated calcium channels (ca2+) to open, ca2+ flows into cell, causes synaptic vesicles to bind with membrane, release contents (nts)
