What is a synapsis

Neurons have specialized projections called dendrites and axons. Dendrites

bring information to the cell body and axons take information away from the
cell body.
Information from one neuron flows to another neuron across a synapse. The
synapse is a small gap separating 2 neurons. The synapse consists of:
1. a presynaptic ending that contains neurotransmitters, mitochondria and other
cell organelles,
2. a postsynaptic ending that contains receptor sites for neurotransmitters and,
3. the synaptic cleft: a space between the presynaptic and postsynaptic endings
The Synapse Junction between
two cells
Site where action
potentials in one cell
cause action
potentials in another
cell
Types
Presynaptic
Postsynaptic
Electrical Synapses
Gap junctions that
allow local current
to flow between
adjacent cells
Found in cardiac
muscle and many
types of smooth
Chemical Synapses Components
Presynaptic terminal
Synaptic cleft
Postsynaptic
membrane
Neurotransmitters
released by action
potentials in presynaptic
terminal
Synaptic vesicles
Diffusion
Postsynaptic
membrane
Neurotransmitter removal
 More about synapsis
For communication between neurons to occur, an
electrical impulse must first travel down an axon to
the synaptic terminal

Neurotransmitter Mobilization and Release

Here at the synaptic terminal (the presynaptic ending), the electrical impulse will trigger
the migration of vesicles (the red dots in the figure to the left) containing
neurotransmitters toward the presynaptic membrane. The vesicle membrane will fuse
with the presynaptic membrane releasing the neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft.
Until recently, it was thought that a neuron produced and released only one type of
neurotransmitter. This was called "Dale's Law." However, there is now evidence that
neurons can contain and release more than one kind of neurotransmitter.
Synapsis
Diffusion of Neurotransmitters Across the
Synaptic Cleft
The neurotransmitter molecules then diffuse across the synaptic
cleft where they can bind with receptor sites on the postsynaptic
ending to influence the electrical response in the postsynaptic
neuron. In the figure on the right, the postsynaptic ending is a
dendrite (axodendritic synapse), but synapses can occur on axons
(axoaxonic synapse) and cell bodies (axosomatic synapse).
When a neurotransmitter binds to a receptor on the postsynaptic
side of the synapse, it results in a change of the postsynaptic cell's
excitability: it makes the postsynaptic cell either more or less
likely to fire an action potential. If the number of excitatory
postsynaptic events are large enough, they will add to cause an
action potential in the postsynaptic cell and a continuation of the
"message."
Many psychoactive drugs and neurotoxins can change the
properties of neurotransmitter release, neurotransmitter reuptake
and the availability of receptor binding sites.
Neurotransmitters and
neuropeptides
Communication of information between neurons is
accomplished by movement of chemicals across a
small gap called the synapse. Chemicals, called
neurotransmitters, are released from one neuron at
the presynaptic nerve terminal. Neurotransmitters
then cross the synapse where they may be
accepted by the next neuron at a specialized site
called a receptor. The action that follows
activation of a receptor site may be either
depolarization (an excitatory postsynaptic
potential) or hyperpolarization (an inhibitory
postsynaptic potential). A depolarization makes it
MORE likely that an action potential will fire; a
hyerpolarization makes it LESS likely that an
action potential will fire.
Postsynaptic Excitatory postsynaptic
potential (EPSP)
Potentials Depolarization occurs and
response is stimulatory
Depolarization might reach
threshold producing an
action potential and cell
response
Inhibitory postsynaptic
potential (IPSP)
Hyperpolarization and
response is inhibitory
Decrease action potentials by
moving membrane potential
farther from threshold
Nerotransmitters and Neuromodulators
Neurotransmitter ….Any specific chemical agent
released by a presynaptic cell on excitation that
crosses the synaptic cleft and stimulates or inhibits the
postsynaptic cell
some neurons can secrete more than one type of
neurotransmitter
Neuromodulators ….Are chemical substances released
from neurons that can presynaptically or
postsynaptically influence the likelihood that an action
potential in the presynaptic terminal wall result in the
production of action potential in the postsynaptic cell.
 Neurotransmitters etc.
Discovery of Neurotransmitters
Back in 1921, an Austrian scientist named Otto Loewi discovered the first
neurotransmitter.

In his experiment (which came to him in a dream), he used two frog hearts.
One heart (heart #1) was still connected to the vagus nerve. Heart #1 was
placed in a chamber that was filled with saline. This chamber was
connected to a second chamber that contained heart #2. So, fluid from
chamber #1 was allowed to flow into chamber #2. Electrical stimulation of
the vagus nerve (which was attached to heart #1) caused heart #1 to slow
down. Loewi also observed that after a delay, heart #2 also slowed down.
From this experiment, Loewi hypothesized that electrical stimulation of
the vagus nerve released a chemical into the fluid of chamber #1 that
flowed into chamber #2. He called this chemical "Vagusstoff". We now
know this chemical as the neurotransmitter called acetylcholine.
Criteria for neurotransmitters
Neuroscientists have set up a few guidelines or criteria to prove that a chemical is
really a neurotransmitter. Not all of the neurotransmitters that you have heard about
may actually meet every one of these criteria.
•The chemical must be produced within a neuron.
•The chemical must be found within a neuron.
•When a neuron is stimulated (depolarized), a neuron must release the chemical.

•When a chemical is released, it must act on a post-synaptic receptor and cause a

biological effect.
•After a chemical is released, it must be inactivated. Inactivation can be through a
reuptake mechanism or by an enzyme that stops the action of the chemical.
•If the chemical is applied on the post-synaptic membrane, it should have the same
effect as when it is released by a neuron.
 Types of neurotransmitters
There are many types of chemicals that act as neurotransmitter substances.
Below is a list of some of them.
•Small Molecule Neurotransmitter Substances
Acetylcholine (ACh) Dopamine (DA) Norepinephrine (NE)

Serotonin (5-HT) Histamine Epinephrine

•Amino Acids
Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) Glycine Glutamate
Aspartate
 Types of neurotransmitters
•Neuroactive Peptides - partial list!!
bradykinin beta-endorphin bombesin calcitonin
cholecystokinin enkephalin dynorphin insulin
gastrin substance P neurotensin glucagon
secretin somatostatin motilin vasopressin
oxytocin prolactin thyrotropin angiotensin II
sleep peptides galanin neuropeptide Y thyrotropin-releasing hormone
gonadotropnin-releasing hormone growth hormone-releasing hormone
luteinizing hormone vasoactive intestinal peptide

•Soluble Gases
Nitric Oxide (NO) Carbon Monoxide
 Transport and release of
neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitters are made in the cell body of the neuron and then
transported down the axon to the axon terminal. Molecules of
neurotransmitters are stored in small "packages" called vesicles
(see the picture on the right). Neurotransmitters are released from
the axon terminal when their vesicles "fuse" with the membrane of
the axon terminal, spilling the neurotransmitter into the synaptic
cleft.

Unlike other neurotransmitters, nitric oxide (NO) is not stored in synaptic vesicles.
Rather, NO is released soon after it is produced and diffuses out of the neuron. NO
then enters another cell where it activates enzymes for the production of "second
messengers."
 Binding and inactivation of
neurotransmitters
Receptor Binding
Neurotransmitters will bind only to specific receptors on the postsynaptic membrane that
recognize them

Inactivation of Neurotransmitters
The action of neurotransmitters can be stopped by four different mechanisms

1. Diffusion: the neurotransmitter drifts away, out of the

synaptic cleft where it can no longer act on a receptor.
 Inactivation of neurotransmitters

2. Enzymatic degradation (deactivation): a specific enzyme

changes the structure of the neurotransmitter so it is not
recognized by the receptor. For example,
acetylcholinesterase is the enzyme that breaks acetylcholine
into choline and acetate.

3. Glial cells: astrocytes remove neurotransmitters

from the synaptic cleft

4. Reuptake: the whole neurotransmitter molecule is taken back

into the axon terminal that released it. This is a common way the
action of norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin is stopped...these
neurotransmitters are removed from the synaptic cleft so they
cannot bind to receptors
Neurotransmitter Removal
Spatial and Temporal Summation

Spatial summation ….Summation of the local

potentials in which two or more action potentials
arrive simultaneously at two different presynaptic
terminals that synapse with the same postsynaptic
neuron
Temporal summation …Summation of the local
potential that results when two or more action
potentials arrive in very close succession at a single
presynaptic terminal
Summation
Spatial Summation

Combination of spatial
and temporal summation

Temporal Summation