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Concept

synapse

A neuron with a central body and multiple dendrites extending outward, symbolizing the complex structure of a synapse.

The junction between two neurons, typically a gap of about twenty nanometres across which chemical messengers diffuse to relay a signal. The term was coined by Charles Sherrington in 1897. Synapses vary enormously in strength and can be tuned over timescales from milliseconds to years; the pattern of those tunings is, as far as anyone can tell, what memory physically is.

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