SYNAPSE      

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Context

• Recent work by researchers at the National Centre of Biological Sciences, Bengaluru, has thrown light on what stimulates these synapses to form.

Synapse

• In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that permits a neuron (or nerve cell) to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another neuron or to the target effector cell.
• Synapses are essential to the transmission of nervous impulses from one neuron to another.
• Neurons are specialized to pass signals to individual target cells, and synapses are the means by which they do so.

Chemical Synapses:

• In chemical synapses, there is a space of about 20 nanometres between two neurons, and the way they communicate is this.
• One neuron converts electrical signal into chemical signals and this chemical is released into the synaptic space and the receiving neuron converts the chemical signal back into an electrical signal.

Electrical Synapse:

• In electrical synapses, the two neurons have a physical connection and the conversion of electrical to chemical need not occur, and they communicate directly.
• Electrical synapses are like a physical wire, communication is faster but they are also fewer in number.

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