The work of the human brain is complex and includes many different processes. To make a person feel something, millions of neurons interact with the central nervous system. Several organs and specific cells are fundamental in the process of neuronal activation. To have a general view of how neurons work, one should be aware of certain terms and interactions of neuronal impulses.
One of the main parts of the neuronal “chain” is a neurotransmitter. These are the chemical substances that transmit a signal through a synapse to a target cell. In turn, the target cell might be another neuron, namely the receiving neuron. The synaptic cleft is a space between nerve cells through which a signal is transmitted into the intercellular area. Signal Transduction Cascade refers to any process through which a cell transforms one type of signal or stimulus to another. G-protein-linked receptors act as activators of intracellular signal transduction ways, which then lead to a cellular response. For the record, according to Higuchi et al. (2017), there are several ways of neural stimulations or cellular response. However, the central part of the cellular response is the agonist, which includes some types.
Ligand-ion channels are a group of transmembrane ion channels that allow ions to pass through a biological membrane. In the case of a voltage-gated channel, at rest, the activation gate of the channels is closed, and the inactivation gate is open. In the process of membrane depolarization, conformational changes in the channel occur, and the activation gate opens. Ligand-ion channels seem to be involved in the action of anesthetics and ethanol, although definitive evidence for this remains to be established.
Indeed, it is not easy to fully explore all the aspects of brain activity. Nevertheless, nowadays, scientists can study neural activations on various frequencies (Hesse, 2020). Thus, one was able to identify that there are full agonist, which reaches the maximal response of the cell, and partial one. The partial agonist does not get the maximal response capability of the cell even if the receptor is fully occupied. An inverse agonist reduces the fraction of receptors in an active conformation. The work of neurons could be described in the following way. When there is a “splash” of tension on the axon, the synapse responds and transmits it to “dendrites,” leading to a cellular response by interaction with the agonist.
Scientists study a process of neural activity using high-innovative technologies. Thus, Researchers have used neuroimaging techniques to examine neural activation (Sokolowski & Ansari, 2016). One also identified that Each neuron has thousands of synapses, but no more than a tenth of all synapses are active at any given time. Neuron reaction times are units of ms; the same order of delay for signal propagation along the dendrite, these delays have a significant impact on the functioning of the neuron.
References
Higuchi, K., Kamimura, D., Stofkova, A., Nishikawa, N., Ohki, T., Arima, Y., Murakami, M. (2017). Gateway reflexes are stimulated by neural activations and promote the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis models. Nutrition and Lifestyle in Neurological Autoimmune Diseases. (pp.45-49). Academic Press.
Hesse, E. (2020). Intracranial studies of cognition in humans. Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology. (pp. 5-6). Academic Press.
Sokolowski, H. M., Ansari, D. (2016). Symbolic and nonsymbolic representation of number in the human parietal cortex: A review of the state-of-the-art, outstanding questions and future directions. (pp. 326-353). Academic Press.