Inhibitory and arousing synapse

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Exciting and inhibiting synapses - almost everyone has heard of them before, but very few know the difference. However, this is not that complicated if you deal with the matter a bit.

The synaptic cleft as an illustration
The synaptic cleft as an illustration

These are synapses

  • Synapses are the places that represent neural connections. The nerve cells are connected to other cells. These can be other nerve cells, muscle cells, sensory cells or the like.
  • Nerve cells send their messages to other cells by means of an electrical signal, but these become one at the synaptic gap chemical signal converted, transmitted and only then converted back into an electrical signal, which the cell then receives and can handle.
  • The adult human brain has about 100 trillion synapses. However, not only synapses, but also entire neurons are divided into excitatory, i.e. excitatory, or inhibitory, in this case inhibitory.
  • Many neuronal diseases can be traced back to a defect in the synapses, which in most cases cannot be cured.

The exciting Syapse explained

  • The excitatory synapse forms a so-called ESPS in the postsynaptic cell, which means excitatory postsynaptic potential. This triggers a depolarization.
  • Synapse - function simply explained

    For biology class or university, you need to know what the function of a ...

  • In this case, depolarization describes the temporary reversal or cancellation of a charge difference between two membranes of different cells.

The inhibitory synapse in contrast

  • An inhibitory synapse leads to an inhibitory postsynaptic potential, or IPSP for short, in the postsynaptic cell, which avoids depolarization.
  • In the case of an inhibiting synapse, unlike the exciting synapse, there is no depolarization between the cell membranes, and the difference in charge is not reversed.

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