endplate
The motor neuron's endplate releases neurotransmitters onto the muscle fiber.
Noun: * The flattened end of a motor neuron that transmits neural impulses to a muscle: A specialized terminal structure of a motor nerve fiber that forms a synapse with a muscle fiber, releasing neurotransmitters to trigger muscle contraction. It is also commonly called a motor end plate.
The term "endplate" is a technical, anatomical term used primarily in neuroscience, physiology, and medicine. It refers specifically to the neural component of the neuromuscular junction.
- The neurotransmitter acetylcholine is released from the endplate to stimulate the muscle.
- Damage to the motor neuron can affect the function of the endplate.
- In myasthenia gravis, antibodies attack the receptors on the muscle membrane at the endplate.
- "Endplate potential": The local depolarization of the muscle fiber membrane caused by the neurotransmitter released from the endplate. It may or may not lead to a full muscle action potential.
- A sufficient endplate potential is required to trigger muscle contraction.
- Motor end plate: The full and more precise term for "endplate."
- Neuromuscular junction: The entire synaptic connection between the motor neuron and the muscle fiber, which includes the endplate (neural component) and the post-synaptic muscle membrane.
- Synaptic terminal / Nerve terminal: More general terms for the end of a neuron that releases neurotransmitters; an endplate is a specific type of synaptic terminal.
- Motor end plate
- Nerve ending (in the specific context of motor neurons and muscles)
The word "endplate" is highly specific and has essentially one meaning in standard English usage: the terminal structure of a motor neuron. It is not used in general or figurative contexts.
The motor neuron's endplate releases neurotransmitters onto the muscle fiber.
- the flattened end of a motor neuron that transmits neural impulses to a muscle