Neurons fire like shotguns, not rifles
July 15, 2005 | Source: KurzweilAI
The synapse may behave more like a shotgun than a rifle when it comes to firing the neurotransmitters involved in neuronal communication, says a Howard Hughes Medical Institute research team led by investigator Terrence Sejnowski.
They created a detailed 3-D map of the synapse of a chick ciliary ganglion. The new 3-D modeling technique could offer a powerful tool for understanding neurological disease, such as myasthenia gravis, a common disorder in which a defect in nerve impulse transmission results in muscle weakness.