I read that glutamate increases the chance of action potential occuring while GABA does the opposite.
But I’m kind of confused how they can do this? Do they just latch on to the receptors of the receiving neuron? How does that influence the action potential of the sending neuron? Or is it the receiving neuron that gets the action potential excited/inhibited?
​
Sorry, I’m not sure if that makes much sense. Thank you for any help :))
In: Other
Ligands, like glutamate and GABA, bind to receptors. Receptors do something with the signal. In this case, the receptors are ion channels and let ions through.
Glutamate receptors open and let calcium ions in. There’s a lot of complexity, but the oversimplified version is that calcium is a positively charged ion and moves the membrane potential closer to firing an action potential. GABA receptors bind GABA and open to let in chloride, a negatively charged ion that hyperpolarizes and makes it so it’s harder for an action potential to fire.
There is nothing in the molecular composition of glutamate and GABA that produces this effect. They bind to receptors in the neuron, it’s those receptors the ones that trigger a response inside the cell that ends up with the inhibition of the action potential, or its excitation. It’s just that GABA happens to always bind receptors that produce inhibition of the action potential in the neuron, while glutamate almost always happens to do the same but with excitation receptors. It’s the receptors that are inhibitory or excitatory, not really the neurotransmitters.
Latest Answers