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A neuroeffector junction is a site where a motor neuron releases a neurotransmitter to affect a target—non-neuronal—cell. This junction functions like a synapse.However, unlike most neurons, somatic efferent motor neurons innervate skeletal muscle, and are always excitatory.
Presynaptic neurotoxins, commonly known as β-neurotoxins, affect the presynaptic regions of the neuromuscular junction. The majority of these neurotoxins act by inhibiting the release of neurotransmitters, such as acetylcholine, into the synapse between neurons. However, some of these toxins have also been known to enhance neurotransmitter ...
Some of these conditions are also related to neurotransmitter switching, a phenomenon where neurons change the type of neurotransmitters they release. [88] [89] [90] Chronic physical or emotional stress can be a contributor to neurotransmitter system changes. Genetics also plays a role in neurotransmitter activities.
Acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter used at the neuromuscular junction—in other words, it is the chemical that motor neurons of the nervous system release in order to activate muscles. This property means that drugs that affect cholinergic systems can have very dangerous effects ranging from paralysis to convulsions .
Comparatively, the command of visceral muscles is disynaptic involving two neurons: the general visceral motor neuron, located in the CNS, synapses onto a ganglionic neuron, located in the PNS, which synapses onto the muscle. All vertebrate motor neurons are cholinergic, that is, they release the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.
After the neurotransmitter detaches from the receptor, the neurotransmitters in the synaptic cleft can either be degraded by enzymes (e.g., acetylcholinesterase for acetylcholine) or can be taken back into the presynaptic neuron through reuptake mechanisms (e.g., EEAT glutamate transporters).
Glutamate (the conjugate base of glutamic acid) is abundant in the human body, but particularly in the nervous system and especially prominent in the human brain where it is the body's most prominent neurotransmitter, the brain's main excitatory neurotransmitter, and also the precursor for GABA, the brain's main inhibitory neurotransmitter. [2]
The neurotransmitter most often associated with EPSPs is the amino acid glutamate, and is the main excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system of vertebrates. [2] Its ubiquity at excitatory synapses has led to it being called the excitatory neurotransmitter.