PHS 3341 Chapter 2: Lecture 3- Reading

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Physiology
• Course: PHS 3341
• Professor: Stephen Gee

Document Summary

Synapses, neurotransmitters and signals, synapse behavior, excitatory and inhibitory synapses, presynaptic inhibition or facilitation, convergence and divergence. Graded potentials are local changes in membrane potential that occur in varying grades or degrees of magnitude or strength. Graded potentials are usually produced by a specific triggering event that causes gated ion channels to open in a specialized region of the excitable cell membrane. Often leading to the inward movement of na down its concentration and electrical gradients. The depolarization and magnitude of the initial graded potential is related to the magnitude of the triggering event. When a graded potential occurs locally in a nerve or muscle cell membrane, the remainder of the membrane is still at resting potential, the area of active depolarization is called the active area. The active area is more positive than the neighboring inactive area that is still at resting membrane potential. The graded potential has the ability to spread along the inactive area.