Talk:Chemical synapse

This article is Brilliant Prose.

8 Jan '04

That's as maybe, but I want also to add that there are different kinds of synapse. Most are chemical in nature, such as are already described. However, there is evidence for some very fast acting synapses which are electrical. These are reported to have been discovered in fish. Assuming that this has not been discredited, it would be worth having a section on electrical synapses. David Martland 00:06, 16 Jan 2004 (UTC)

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11389476&dopt=Abstract Electrical synapses between GABA-releasing interneurons.

Galarreta M, Hestrin S.

Department of Comparative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, CA 94305-5330, USA. galarreta@stanford.edu

Although gap junctions were first demonstrated in the mammalian brain about 30 years ago, the distribution and role of electrical synapses have remained elusive. A series of recent reports has demonstrated that inhibitory interneurons in the cerebral cortex, thalamus, striatum and cerebellum are extensively interconnected by electrical synapses. Investigators have used paired recordings to reveal directly the presence of electrical synapses among identified cell types. These studies indicate that electrical coupling is a fundamental feature of local inhibitory circuits and suggest that electrical synapses define functionally diverse networks of GABA-releasing interneurons. Here, we discuss these results, their possible functional significance and the insights into neuronal circuit organization that have emerged from them.] 168... 16:31, 16 Jan 2004 (UTC)