You are talking with your 10 year old nephew who is very excited to tell you tha

Question

You are talking with your 10 year old nephew who is very excited to tell you that he learned in science class that the nervous system is like a series of electrical wires that run throughout the body. With your newfound experience in physiology you know that’s not quite true, and that there are gaps (synapses) between neurons, meaning information in the nervous system is not just transmitted via action potential. Describe to your nephew how information is passed from the pre-synaptic to post-synaptic neuron in order to allow information flow throughout the nervous system.

Explanation / Answer

Answer

Neurons are the structural and functional unit of nervous system. Information from the brain is conducted through electrical impulses via neurons. The arrangement of neurons is specific in order to maintain smooth conduction.
A neuron has dendrites and cell body which receives the impulse. The axon is the terminal part of neuron that transmit the signal to another neuron. It works as a relay system.
There are neumerous neurons arranged one after another for sending and receieving signals.

The information is not only transmitted through an action potential. The neurons are not directly attached to one another. There are gaps between each neurons. This gap between neurons is called synapse.

The axon terminal of one neuron is called presynaptic neuron and the dendritic area of the next neuron is called post synaptic neuron. Neurotransmitters are the chemicals that help in conduction of electrical impulse from pre synaptic to post synaptic neurons. These neurotransmitters are stored in vescicles of presynaptic neurons. When an electrical impulse reaches the axon terminal, these vescicles bind to a specialized docking proteins on the membrane. When the proteins fuse the vesicle to the presynaptic membrane, the vesicle opens and empties its neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft.
There are several receptors on the postsynaptic membrane that receives the neurotransmitter. The binding of neurotransmitter to reseptors depend on specific shape of molecules and receptors as well as ion channels.
This binding of neurotransmitter allows the electrical impulse to pass on to the postsynaptic neuron.

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