Gap Junctions Electrotonic Coupling

<p>Apr 21, 2009 6:03 PM

Forget gap junctions!   see page 47 of The brain by Richard Thompson

google  "how common are gap junctions in the brain"

great majority of syanpses in mammalian brain are chemical  (so learning can take place!).

You do NOT want a tight connection btwn cells... like an electrical transformer in whcih the

post synaptic cell is always stimulated.

The beauty of neurons is that they are isolated, modular.

(This was a major acrimonius dispute btwn Ramon y Cajal and Golgi who shared the Nobel Prize in 1906..

Gogli said it was a giant reticulum... RyC... said no... separate cells.

Ephaptic conduction is direct electrical stimulation of the postsynaptic neuron by the presynap neuron.

Cross-talk is another good synonym for it.

Neurons do NOT go thru mitosis and cannot usu. be replaced.

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