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The two ways that synaptic potentials can add up to potentially form an action potential are spatial summation and temporal summation. [5] Spatial summation refers to several excitatory stimuli from different synapses converging on the same postsynaptic neuron at the same time to reach the threshold needed to reach an action potential. Temporal ...
Summation, which includes both spatial summation and temporal summation, is the process that determines whether or not an action potential will be generated by the combined effects of excitatory and inhibitory signals, both from multiple simultaneous inputs (spatial summation), and from repeated inputs (temporal summation).
If the cell is receiving both inhibitory and excitatory postsynaptic potentials, they can cancel each other out, or one can be stronger than the other, and the membrane potential will change by the difference between them. Temporal summation: When a single synapse inputs that are close together in time, their potentials are also added together ...
Temporal summation occurs when graded potentials within the postsynaptic cell occur so rapidly that they build on each other before the previous ones fade. Spatial summation occurs when postsynaptic potentials from adjacent synapses on the cell occur simultaneously and add together.
Spatial summation is the combination of multiple sources of ion influx (multiple channels within a dendrite, or channels within multiple dendrites), whereas temporal summation is a gradual increase in overall charge due to repeated influxes in the same location. Because the ionic charge enters in one location and dissipates to others, losing ...
Therefore, in order to achieve threshold and generate an action potential, the postsynaptic neuron has the capacity to add up all of the incoming EPSPs based on the mechanism of summation, which can occur in time and space. Temporal summation occurs when a particular synapse is stimulated at a high frequency, which causes the postsynaptic ...
A similar process occurs in retrograde neurotransmission, where the dendrites of the postsynaptic neuron release retrograde neurotransmitters (e.g., endocannabinoids; synthesized in response to a rise in intracellular calcium levels) that signal through receptors that are located on the axon terminal of the presynaptic neuron, mainly at ...
The greater the value of the length constant, the further the potential will travel. A large length constant can contribute to spatial summation—the electrical addition of one potential with potentials from adjacent areas of the cell. The length constant can be defined as: = +