Gap junctions facilitate the exchange of solutes, metabolic precursors and electrical currents between neighbouring cells. They appear as clusters (or plaques) of tightly packed particles ...

making it possible for neurons to pass ion currents directly through gap junctions. For this reason, electrical synapses work faster than chemical ones and allow for impulses to travel in either ...

Intercalated discs connect cardiac muscle cells. Gap junctions inside the intercalated discs relay electrical impulses from one cardiac muscle cell to another. Desmosomes are other structures ...

An electrical impulse cannot directly cross the gap so a different mechanism has to be used. Between impulses the transmitter molecules are rapidly removed from the synaptic cleft to prevent ...