PHYS20008 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Chemical Equilibrium, Neuron, The Terminal
8 May 2019
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Document Summary
The big area seen below acts a receiving centre (signals or chemicals come from other places to here). As a result, the neuron reaches a potential called. Threshold" which causes an action potential (electrical signal) which starts at the large end and travels down the axon (blue arrows) to the terminal . The terminal then releases a chemical called a neurotransmitter which moves to the next neuron or other thing to be received. Today we will be looking at the membrane of the neuron and how the action potential/electrical signal works. Remember, lots of potassium inside the cells and lots of sodium outside the cells. Theoretically, this imbalance across the membrane means sodium wants to try and move inside the cell. In reality, the membrane actually is permeable for both potassium and sodium however they each stay in their respective places.
