摘要
A great challenge in neuroscience has been to understand how neurons communicate.The neuroanatomists of the 19th Century could see neurons stretching processes to contact other neurons,but could not see the detail of the contact.Many thought that neurons formed a syncytium,with continuity of membranes from one to the next.Over the ensuing two hundred years or so,we have come to understand that the circuity of the brain is not formed by a syncytium of neurons;rather,individual neurons communicate with each other with a range of biological signals.Neurons are highly active cells,with their activity being electrical and their communication being either chemical,electrical or gaseous.