The synapse is the way neurons communicate and the divisions of the nervous system.
Synapses occur in the cortex of the brain where nerve cells or also called neurons are located. The functional connection between a neuron and a second cell is called a synapse.
The synapse in the Central Nervous System It is the communication between one neuron and another neuron. In it system peripheral nervous, The transmission of information occurs between a neuron and an effector cell in a muscle or gland.
Synapses allow the information that a neuron transmits to be filtered and integrated. They are characterized by being a transmission that goes in only one direction.
To differentiate between the transmitter and the receiver of the signal, the neuron that sends the signal is called presynaptic neuron and to which receives the signal as postsynaptic neuron.
See also Neuron.
Types of synapses
Neurons can be connected by the axon (thin extension of the neuron), by the dendrites (branches of neurons) or by the cell body or soma of the neuron.
exist three types of synapses depending on the connection point of neurons:
Axodendritic: axon to dentrites.
Axosomatic: axon to the soma or cell body of the neuron.
Axoaxonic: from axon to axon.
Synapses can also be differentiated into two types according to their structural and functional physiognomy in electrical synapses and chemical synapses.
electrical synapse
Electrical synapses have two fundamental advantages. The first is that because it is a direct communication, it is fast and almost immediate and the second is synchronization, that is, the information spreads through interconnections controlling groups of neurons or ocular fibers.
In the electrical synapse, the action potentials or impulses of the neurons are transmitted directly through the communicating connections of the cleft, which are the intercellular junctions.
Each gap junction contains tubular connections that are transmembrane proteins called connexins. Connexins are what allow two cells to join together for electrical synapses.
chemical synapse
The chemical synapse is slower because the cells are separated by a space or synaptic cleft, that is, they do not touch each other. In order for the signal from the presynaptic neuron to be received through the synaptic cleft, it must convert the electrical signal or nerve impulse into a chemical signal.
The chemical signal is transmitted through a neurotransmitter that diffuses through the fluid of the synaptic cleft, binding to specific receptors on the postsynaptic membrane.
The postsynaptic neuron receives the chemical signal, that is, the released neurotransmitter, and converts it back into an electrical signal in the form of a postsynaptic potential.