Mechanism of impulse transmission across a chemical synapse
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As noted earlier, synapses are the junctions where neurons pass signals to other neurons, muscle cells, or gland cells. Most nerve-to-nerve signaling and all known nerve-to-muscle and nerve-to-gland signaling rely on chemical synapses at which the presynaptic neuron releases a chemical neurotransmitter that acts on the postsynaptic target cell (see Figure 21-4). In this section we discuss the types of molecules that function as transmitters at chemical synapses, their origin and fate, and their effects on postsynaptic cells. Because the ability of neurotransmitters to induce a response depends on their binding to specific receptors in the postsynaptic membrane, we introduce the major classes of receptors in this section; individual receptors are examined in more detail in the next section. We also briefly discuss electric synapses, which are much rarer, but simpler in function, than chemical synapses.