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End plate potentials (EPPs) are the voltages which cause depolarization of skeletal muscle fibers caused by neurotransmitters binding to the postsynaptic membrane in the neuromuscular junction. They are called "end plates" because the postsynaptic terminals of muscle fibers have a large, saucer-like appearance.
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.
In some invertebrates, glutamate is the main excitatory transmitter at the neuromuscular junction. [3] [4] In the neuromuscular junction of vertebrates, EPP (end-plate potentials) are mediated by the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which (along with glutamate) is one of the primary transmitters in the central nervous system of invertebrates. [5]
The ability of a motoneuron to branch at the neuromuscular junction represents the pre-synaptic plasticity of the motor unit. The ability of acetylcholine receptors to increase and decrease in number on the motor end plate of the effector muscle represents the post-synaptic plasticity of the motor unit. Studies have shown that with increased ...
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.
Neuromuscular junction diseases can also be referred to as end plate diseases or disorders. [citation needed] Among neuromuscular diseases some can be autoimmune disease, or hereditary disorders. They can affect either presynaptic mechanisms or postsynaptic mechanisms, preventing the junction from functioning normally.
This was shortly after transmitter release at the frog neuromuscular junction was found to induce postsynaptic miniature end-plate potentials that were ascribed to the release of discrete packages of neurotransmitter (quanta) from the presynaptic nerve terminal.
The connection between the alpha motor neuron and the extrafusal muscle fiber is a neuromuscular junction, where the neuron's signal, the action potential, is transduced to the muscle fiber by the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.