Posted by IsoM on March 25, 2002, at 19:09:12
In reply to YES/NO question about RECEPTORS!, posted by Janelle on March 25, 2002, at 16:18:47
Receptors are on the end of the nerve cell that RECEIVES a message. The message is received in the form of neurotransmittersu sent from the other end of an adjacent nerve cell. Receptors don't send, they receive only.
But the neurotransmitters that the receptor receives do not stay locked into the receptor plugs on the receptor end. Otherwise the same signal would be continuously sent. After the message (from the neurotransmitters) is received by the receptor, the receptor will release the neurotransmitter molecules & don't continuing holding them. They let go. The molecules of neurotransmitters will then fade back into the sending end of the other nerve cell.
I'll give a human illustration. You are a receptor, your house is nerve cell, your door is the receptor end. You receive a message in the form of a letter (the equivalent of neurotrasmitters) from another house. After receving & reading the letter, you toss the paper outside to be recycled. You pass the information along to the other members of your family in the house (cell). If the message needs to travel further to another house (nerve cell), a letter (neurotransmitters) will be sentfrom the back door. You did receive the message but you did release something too - the paper the letter was on after you got the message.
Same with nerve cells. The receptor ends receives a message, transmitts it along the axon to the other end which will send it to the next nerve cell & its receptor. But the receptors don't hold on to the neurotransmitter molecules it gets the message from, no more than you hold on to every paper. The paper is recycled again - and so are neurotransmitters. The receptor has "received a message" but has "released" the form the message came in - neurotransmitters, back to the other cell that sent them in the first place.
Oh, please, please - I hope this makes it clearer.
poster:IsoM
thread:99715
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020322/msgs/100110.html