Practice question · Multiple choice
The action potential does not jump across the synaptic cleft. What crosses instead?
Hints
- Ask why a gap would exist at all if the signal could simply cross it.
- What do most psychiatric drugs act on?
Show the answer
B. Neurotransmitter molecules crossing the gap
Why
The chemical step is the point of the gap. It is where signals can be amplified, inhibited or modulated, and where almost every psychoactive drug does its work.
Practise Synaptic Transmission
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More questions on Synaptic Transmission
- A regular opioid user needs steadily larger doses for the same effect, and feels terrible without any. What…
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- Select every statement that is TRUE about synaptic transmission.
- Blocking the reuptake of serotonin will tend to DECREASE serotonin's effect on the receiving neuron.
- Order the events of chemical synaptic transmission.
- Sort each drug action as an agonist or an antagonist.