They're small molecules that - whose principal function in the body is to carry signals from one cell in the nervous system to another.

它们都是小分子,在体内主要功能是在,神经系统内将信号,从一个细胞传导到另一个细胞

耶鲁公开课 - 生物医学工程探索课程节选

They're synthesized, they're packaged into vesicles, and then they're just waiting.

神经递质不断合成 包装进小泡中,时刻准备着

耶鲁公开课 - 生物医学工程探索课程节选

This process, which is shown schematically here, as a vesicle fusing with the cell membrane and then dropping its neurotransmitter only happens when an action potential reaches the end of the axon.

这一过程 扼要地展示在这里,小泡同细胞膜融合,释放其神经递质,这只发生在动作电位抵达轴突末梢时

耶鲁公开课 - 生物医学工程探索课程节选

another thing that you'd find if you looked inside the axon terminals of any of these pre-synaptic membranes, you'd find lots of vesicles or some membrane bound compartments that contain special chemicals called neurotransmitters.

如果你仔细观察,突触前膜的轴突末梢内部,你会发现很多小泡,即膜包被的结构,包含有称为神经递质的特殊化合物

耶鲁公开课 - 生物医学工程探索课程节选

If you could look inside a pre-synaptic axon terminal, you would find one of the characteristics is that it's loaded with these vesicles and they're just sitting there waiting to receive an action potential so that they can immediately dump their contents.

如果你能够一窥突触前的轴突末梢内部,你将会发现一个共同特征,神经递质都装载在小泡中,时刻准备着等待动作电位激活,以便迅速释放其内含物

耶鲁公开课 - 生物医学工程探索课程节选