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A neuromuscular junction (or myoneural junction) is a chemical synapse between a motor neuron and a muscle fiber. [1] It allows the motor neuron to transmit a signal to the muscle fiber, causing muscle contraction. [2] Muscles require innervation to function—and even just to maintain muscle tone, avoiding atrophy.
During the 1950s, Bernard Katz and Paul Fatt observed spontaneous miniature synaptic currents at the frog neuromuscular junction. [33] Based on these observations, they developed the 'quantal hypothesis' that is the basis for our current understanding of neurotransmitter release as exocytosis and for which Katz received the Nobel Prize in ...
In biology, a motor unit is made up of a motor neuron and all of the skeletal muscle fibers innervated by the neuron's axon terminals, including the neuromuscular junctions between the neuron and the fibres. [1] Groups of motor units often work together as a motor pool to coordinate the contractions of a single muscle.
The neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is the most well-characterized synapse in that it provides a simple and accessible structure that allows for easy manipulation and observation. The synapse itself is composed of three cells: the motor neuron , the myofiber , and the Schwann cell .
The structure of the autonomic neuromuscular junction consists of several essential features including that: the terminal portions of autonomic nerve fibers are varicose and mobile, transmitters being released 'en passage' from varying distances from the effector cells; while there is no structural post-junctional specialization on effector ...
In addition, a synapse serves as a junction where both the transmission and processing of information occur, making it a vital means of communication between neurons. [11] At the synapse, the plasma membrane of the signal-passing neuron (the presynaptic neuron) comes into close apposition with the membrane of the target (postsynaptic) cell.
Glutamate released from the upper motor neurons triggers depolarization in the lower motor neurons in the anterior grey column, which in turn causes an action potential to propagate the length of the axon to the neuromuscular junction where acetylcholine is released to carry the signal across the synaptic cleft to the postsynaptic receptors of the muscle cell membrane, signaling the muscle to ...
Presynaptic membrane of the neuromuscular junction [ edit ] It is known that muscarinic acetylcholine receptors also appear on the pre-synaptic membrane of somatic neurons in the neuro-muscular junction, where they are involved in the regulation of acetylcholine release.