On Neurotransmitter Secretion

AbstractAll commands issued by the brain travel along nerves to respective muscles and there initiate the appropriate contraction. At the junction of nerve and muscle, the neuromuscular junction, the nerve cells and muscle cells are separated by a cleft, across which a chemical, acetylcholine, moves in small quanta at great speed. The mechanism of transmission, the reasons for the transfer of small quantal packets (a process named 'exocytosis' by the author) and the experimental evidence for this, and the size of the miniature potentials responsible are discussed. At present, no final explanation can be given for all the minutiae of this vital process.