This deep dive covers Synapses: How Neurones Communicate within Nervous System for GCSE Biology. Topic 2: Nervous System It is section 4 of 18 in this topic. Use this deep dive to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
🔗 Synapses: How Neurones Communicate
Synapses are tiny gaps (about 20 nanometres wide) between two neurones. Electrical impulses cannot jump across this gap — instead, chemical messengers called neurotransmitters carry the signal across.
Practice questions for Nervous System
What are the two organs that make up the central nervous system (CNS)?
Explain how a signal is transmitted across a synapse from one neurone to the next.
Quick recall flashcards
Name four types of sensory receptor.
Photoreceptors (light, in eye), thermoreceptors (temperature, in skin), pressure receptors (touch, in skin), chemoreceptors (chemicals, in tongue and nose).
Name the three types of neurone.
Sensory (receptor → CNS), relay (within CNS), motor (CNS → effector). Remember: SRM — Students Revise Methodically.