The term synapse is from the Greek word synaptein, for "juncture" or "fasten together," by way of the Latin synapsis. It refers to the specialized junction found between nerve cells. It was conceived by the British pioneer...

A synapse is a functional gap or intercellular space between neural cells (neurons). The neural synapse is bound by the presynaptic terminal end of one neuron, and the dendrite of the postsynaptic neuron. Neuromuscular synapses are created when neurons...

Nerve cells differ from other types of cells in an important way: They contain long projections, nerve fibers that consist of axons and dendrites. These nerve fibers are very long and complex. In an animal, they overlap each other in a network whose...

The synapse is the site for interneuronal signalling in the nervous system. The adjectival form of synapse is synaptic. Synapses are either chemical or electrical. The CHEMICAL SYNAPSE consists of the PRESYNAPTIC TERMINAL, SYNAPTIC CLEFT and...

Chemical synapses are specialized junctions through which the cells of the nervous system signal to each other and to non-neuronal cells such as those in muscles or glands. Chemical synapses allow the neurons of the central nervous system to form...

ABSTRACT We have used thin sectioning and conical electron tomography to determine the three-dimensional structure of synaptic vesicles that were associated (docked) at release sites of the presynaptic membrane, called active-zones. Vesicles docked at the active zone occupied a strategic location: they formed...

Researchers want to understand the control center of the activation process | By Josh P. Roberts "We can do things that haven't been done before, I think, ever in cell biology," exclaims Mark Davis of Stanford University. His 3-D, fluorescence video-microscopy system allows...