Neurotransmitter
Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that transmit a message from a nerve cell across the synapse to a target cell. The target can be another nerve cell, or a muscle cell, or a gland cell. They are chemicals made by the nerve cell specifically to transmit the message. Discovery Until the early 20th century, scientists assumed that the majority of synaptic communication in the brain was electrical. However, through histological examinations by Ramón y Cajal, a 20 to 40 nm gap between neurons, known today as the synaptic cleft, was discovered. The presence of such a gap suggested communication via chemical messengers traversing the synaptic cleft, and in 1921 German pharmacologist Otto Loewi confirmed that neurons can communicate by releasing chemicals. Through a series of experiments involving the vagus nerves of frogs, Loewi was able to manually slow the heart rate of frogs by controlling the amount of saline solution present around the vagus nerve. Upon completion of this ...
