How one neuron hands its message to the next: the kinds of synapse, the machinery inside the terminal, the EPSP and IPSP that follow, the rules synapses obey, and the chemicals that carry the signal across. Examiners set the mechanism of synaptic transmission and the properties of synapses as long essays, and they come back again and again to EPSP against IPSP, the types of inhibition with their examples, and GABA with its receptors.
Topics, in the book’s order
- Synapses and synaptic transmission · pp. 981–987 · asked 3 times
- Properties of synapses · pp. 987–990 · asked twice
- Neurotransmitters · pp. 990–994 · asked 3 times
When you’ve read them: Quiz 116 · Synaptic Transmission in Central Nervous System, 15 questions.
After this chapter you should be able to
- classify synapses in all three ways, and draw and label a synapse
- describe the mechanism of synaptic transmission, presynaptic events and postsynaptic events apart
- list the properties of synapses
- explain each type of synaptic inhibition and give the example the book gives for it
- classify neurotransmitters
- state what the common neurotransmitters do
Going further: the reason behind each property of a synapse, and the receptors, functions and dysfunctions of the individual transmitters.
Viva checklist
- What a synapse is, and the three ways of classifying one
- The parts of a synapse, the width of the cleft, the active zone, and the three vesicle types
- The major steps of transmission, presynaptic then postsynaptic; docking and priming
- Synaptobrevin, syntaxin, SNAP-25 and clathrin, and which toxin hits which
- EPSP and IPSP: size, latency, ionic basis, and which transmitters make each
- Where the graded potentials arise, and why the spike starts at the initial segment
- Chemical against electrical synapse, and why the chemical one is called superior
- The properties of synapses, and the value of the synaptic delay
- The types of synaptic inhibition, with an example of each; the Renshaw cell circuit
- Summation, occlusion, facilitation; habituation, sensitization, PTP and LTP
- Synaptic plasticity as the basis of learning and memory
- Neurotransmitters classified, with examples in each group
- Acetylcholine: distribution, synthesis, its two receptor families
- GABA: synthesis, its three receptors, and how benzodiazepines act