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Question

Describe what happens at the Output Zone and synaptic cleft. Include the terms pre-synaptic, post-synaptic, neurotransmitter, vesicle, fuse and receptors in your answer.

Answer 1

Hi Pamela,

As the name has it, the output zone is a zone where things are being released from a neuron. unlike the input zone where neurons take in the information, in the output zone, the neurons deliver information to others. so how does a neuron do this?

Through the arrival of an Action potential, Voltage-gated Ca channels open up allowing Ca to come into the cell (neuron). This Ca helps with the release of neurotransmitters from the presynaptic vesicles into the synaptic cleft via exocytosis. Exocytosis is a process in which vesicles fuse their membrane with the presynaptic membrane.

now neurotransmitters are in the synaptic cleft, roaming around, trying to find their matching receptor. receptors are found on both pre and post-synaptic membrane but for simplicity let's just imagine we only have them on the post-synaptic membrane. Neurotransmitters bind to their receptor on the Postsynaptic membrane and open up Sodium channels, allowing for depolarization of following neurons or muscles.