PSYC 280 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Batrachotoxin, Curare, Halorhodopsin

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 280
• Professor: Neil Watson

Document Summary

Synaptic transmission: transfer of information across a synapse: the action potential travelling down the axon arrives at the axon terminal, this depolarization opens voltage gated ion channels in the membrane of the axon, the ca 2+ causes synaptic vesicles to filled with neurotransmitter to fuse with the terminal, allowing ca 2+ to enter the terminal. presynaptic membrane and rupture, releasing the neurotransmitter into the synaptic cleft, transmitter molecules cross the cleft to bind to special receptor molecules in the postsynaptic membrane, leading to opening of ion channels in the postsynaptic membrane, the ion flow creates a local epsp or ipsp in the postsynaptic neuron, synaptic transmitter is either a) inactivated (degraded by enzymes) or b) removed from the synaptic cleft by transporters, so the transmission is brief and accurately reflects the activity of the presynaptic cell, synaptic transmitter may also activate presynaptic autoreceptors, regulating future transmitter release, the ipsps and epsps in the postsynaptic cell spread throughout the interior.