How Signals Flow Between Neurons: New Research Explains Membrane...

Courtesy ScienceDaily  Mon, 11/03/2008 - 10:00

Imagine a bathtub with two soap bubbles colliding but never fusing. Then you add detergent, and the surface of the water goes flat as the walls of the bubbles collapse and merge.

Scientists have used that analogy to describe the action of synaptotagmin-1, which acts to catalyze the fusion of the membranes of tiny neurotransmitter-filled bubbles called vesicles with the wall membrane of a neuron.

This action allows signals to flow between neurons.

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