Neurotransmission and Behavior

If the brain is the organ of behavior, neurons are its working units, and neurotransmission is how they communicate. Understanding this chemical signaling system is central to the biological approach because it explains, at a microscopic level, how thoughts, memories, moods, and actions are produced and how drugs and disorders can alter them. This lesson examines how neurons transmit signals and how specific neurotransmitters influence behavior.

A neuron is a specialized cell with three main parts: dendrites that receive incoming signals, a cell body that integrates them, and an axon that carries an outgoing signal toward other cells. Within a neuron, information travels as an electrical impulse called an action potential. But neurons are not physically joined; between them lies a tiny gap