Skip to main content

Electrical Synapse: Gap Junctions

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

An electrical synapse passes current directly between neurons through gap junction channel proteins, transmitting signals virtually instantaneously and sometimes bidirectionally, unlike a chemical synapse.

Show

Electrical synapses in the thalamus help synchronize neurons involved in fast reflexes and sleep rhythms.

Watch for

Electrical synapses are fewer in number than chemical synapses across the nervous system as a whole, despite their speed advantage.