The Connections!

Hello!

After driving through the Neurons we have reached at the end of one neuron and the beginning of another…. the Synapse!…. (synapsis meaning a  junction) It was coined by the eminent neurophysiologist, Sir Charles Sherrington. The talking between two neurons across a synapse is called synaptic transmission.

Neurons in the CNS are highly interconnected. Just like bunch of GirlBffs … One gossip travels faster than the speed of light ,sound everything….Girls will be Girls!!!! 👱 In the human brain we have about 1011 neurons, and each neuron receives about 1000 synaptic connections.😱😵A huge group of Bffs! And they make about 1014 synaptic connections.It literally means that every part of the brain is directly or indirectly connected to every other part…. No secrets here!😷

Neurons send information across junctions called synapses. To have a smooth streamlined command the transmission across synapses is one-way, and is mediated by a chemical called the neurotransmitter(the gossip). The presynaptic neuron releases the neurotransmitter.So from our analogy …..the Bffs …some of the Girls got a new gossip…they will now give the message to the other Girls of the squad.. (here the neurons ) and they will relay it to the next….and this will continue… The neurotransmitter …(gossips) comes in two flavors Glutamate… meaning forward the gossip …and Glycine or GABA saying keep the gossip to your self….  The arrival of the Neurotransmitter (gossip)…then incites a reaction  with its receptor on the postsynaptic neuron… (the receiver girl)….Formation of the neurotransmitter-receptor complex (the gossip and its receptor)changes the excitability of neuron….if the message is a Glutamate! 💨(Let the gossip circulate)The next girl will set in action and the message would be transmitted….but if the message says STOP!🚨(Keep the message to yourself!) The Girl stays still. …and looks pretty!👰

We now know that the Neurons are highly interconnected ….which means single neuron receives messages from a large number of presynaptic neurons at a time…. which is a lot of…Glutamates and Glycines…. now how is the neuron (Girl)supposed to decide what to do ???? So….in this situation The response of the postsynaptic neuron(girl) depends on the integrated summation of all the messages it receives… (Majority in the received messages winds..🎖) And depending whether the majority was for Glutamate or Glycine the Girl decides to either circulate the gossip or keep it to her self..

The neuronal connections can get very confusing at times…. but we shall go step by step and decode them😎 so no need to worry.

Let me know if the analogy was useful…or was too confusing 😅

We’ll learn more on synapses in subsequent posts…😃

-Medha👩