PSYC 385 Chapter Notes -Axon Terminal, Tryptophan, Catechol
Document Summary
Loewi, a german physiologist, concluded nerves send messages by releasing chemicals. The sequence of chemical events at a synapse: the neuron synthesizes chemicals that serve as neurotransmitters. It synthesizes the smaller neurotransmitters in the axon terminals and synthesizes neuropeptides in the cell body: action potentials travel down the axon. At the presynaptic terminal, an action potential enables calcium to enter the cell. Calcium releases neurotransmitters from the terminals and into the synaptic cleft, the space between the presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons: the released molecules diffuse across the narrow cleft, attach to receptors, and alter the activity of the postsynaptic neuron. Nearly all drugs that affect behavior or experience do so by altering synaptic transmission. Neurotransmitters: chemicals that are released by neurons that affect another neuron. Nitric oxide: the oddest transmitter; a gas released by many small local neurons. Poisonous in large quantities and difficult to make in a lab, but many neurons contain an enzyme to make it efficiently.
