How does glutamate and GABA increase/decrease chance of action potential occuring?

Question

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?

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Sorry, I’m not sure if that makes much sense. Thank you for any help :))

In: Other

Answer 1

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.