Assessment |
Biopsychology |
Comparative |
Cognitive |
Developmental |
Language |
Individual differences |
Personality |
Philosophy |
Social |
Methods |
Statistics |
Clinical |
Educational |
Industrial |
Professional items |
World psychology |
Biological: Behavioural genetics · Evolutionary psychology · Neuroanatomy · Neurochemistry · Neuroendocrinology · Neuroscience · Psychoneuroimmunology · Physiological Psychology · Psychopharmacology (Index, Outline)
A synaptic potential (also known as a postsynaptic potential)in short is a change in the potential, voltage, of the post synaptic cell. In other words, it is an alteration in the membrane potential of a cell resulting from activation of a synaptic input. All animal cells maintain a voltage difference between the intracellular and extracellular regions, holding the intracellular region at a negative voltage that in a baseline state is usually in the range -30 to -70 millivolts. Synaptic inputs from neurons can alter this voltage difference. If the intracellular voltage rises, the signal is called an excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP); if it falls the signal is called an inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP). If the cell is electrically excitable, a sufficiently large EPSP may cause it to generate an action potential.
This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors). |