when the message reaches the axon terminal, an electrical impulse travels across the synaptic gap and stimulates the next neuron.
The sentence in your title describes synaptic transmission, but it is slightly inaccurate in how it explains what crosses the synaptic gap.
Quick Scoop
When the message (action potential) reaches the axon terminal, the electrical signal does not itself jump across the synaptic gap. Instead, it is converted into a chemical signal, which then triggers a new electrical signal in the next neuron.
What really happens at the axon terminal
- An action potential (electrical impulse) travels down the axon to the axon terminal.
- The arriving action potential opens voltage‑gated calcium channels in the terminal membrane.
- Calcium enters the terminal and causes synaptic vesicles filled with neurotransmitter to fuse with the presynaptic membrane.
- Neurotransmitter is released into the synaptic cleft (the tiny gap between neurons) and diffuses across it.
- Neurotransmitter binds to receptors on the postsynaptic neuron, opening ion channels and creating a new electrical change that may trigger a new action potential.
So the accurate core idea is:
When the message reaches the axon terminal, the electrical impulse triggers the release of neurotransmitters, which diffuse across the synaptic gap and can stimulate the next neuron to fire.
Only in electrical synapses (via gap junctions) does current pass directly from one cell to another, and those are the exception rather than the rule in the human brain.
SEO note / clearer version for your post title:
“ When the message reaches the axon terminal, an electrical impulse triggers
the release of neurotransmitters, which cross the synaptic gap and may
stimulate the next neuron. ” Bottom note (as requested):
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and
portrayed here.
