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Neuroscience

Your brain can send electricity across a chemical handoff.

At many synapses, an electrical signal triggers chemical messengers that act on another cell’s receptors.

The idea

“A brain signal” can involve a sequence of different processes, not one substance traveling unchanged.

An example

For a simplified chemical-synapse sketch, label three steps from the source: an electrical signal arrives, neurotransmitter is released, and receptors receive it. The sketch is deliberately incomplete and does not represent every kind of neural connection.

Try it

Explain the sequence aloud, then point out which part of your sketch is a simplification.

More context

At many synapses, an electrical signal reaching a nerve ending triggers neurotransmitter release. Those molecules act on receptors on another cell. Brain basics · many synapses, not every connection

Sources & further reading

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