the.com/synapse
the gap where your thoughts leap a void smaller than a smoke ring.
means The tiny junction between two nerve cells across which signals pass, usually by means of chemical messengers leaping the gap.
from Coined around the end of the 19th century by the physiologist Charles Sherrington, who needed a name for the nerve-cell junction; he reached back to the Greek synapsis, 'a clasping together' or 'junction,' built from syn- 'together' and haptein 'to fasten.' The story goes that a classicist colleague suggested the spelling, smoothing it from the harder-edged 'synaptein' to the word we now use.
- tiny gap
- about 20 nanometers wide, crossed by chemicals
- sheer count
- a single neuron can hold thousands of them
- speed
- signals cross in under a millisecond
- prune-happy
- childhood brains delete billions while you sleep
- memory's home
- learning physically reshapes these connections
neuromuscular junction — synapse where motor neurons connect to muscle fibers, containing acetylcholine receptors
giant squid synapse — squid axon giant synapse used in 1952 hodgkin-huxley experiments proving action potential mechanism
mushroom body synapses — fruit fly brain synapses containing ~100,000 connections mapped in 2024 connectome study