Week 3 – Synaptic transmission
The chapter was very insightful in describing different types of synaptic reactions. Although I’ve previously learnt how synaptic reactions occur, the working of electrical synapses was quite new to me, as well as the fact that some chemical synapses differ from each other quite a bit. Because there are so many types of chemical synapses, such as axosomatic, axoaxonic, and dendrodendritic, I was wondering if some neural illnesses are due to some atypical type of synapse. For example, are dendrodendritic synapses more prone to have problems compared to axosomatic synapses?
The chapter listed the major neurotransmitters and divided them into three main chemical categories: amino acids, amines and peptides. In each of the steps of synaptic transmission it was introduced different neurotransmitters and their functions in these steps, such as how inhibitory postsynaptic potential is caused by the GABA-gated or glycine-gated ion channel. Especially it was interesting to read about diseases that are caused by the defects of inhibitory glycine receptors. It was said that mutation of a one certain gene for glycine receptor will cause a disease called spasmodic. Because it was said that this genetic mutation resemble strychnine poisoning, I was wondering whether the treatments for this poisoning could be used for curing the spasmodic, or how these kind of diseases are handled generally?
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