Shepherd G M, Erulkar S D
Section of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA.
Trends Neurosci. 1997 Sep;20(9):385-92. doi: 10.1016/s0166-2236(97)01059-x.
Few concepts have meant more to neuroscience than the synapse, commonly understood to mean the junction between two excitable cells. The term was introduced by Charles Sherrington in 1897. The centenary of this event is an appropriate time to review the term's origins and utility. There are some surprises. The term didn't actually come from him. His concept was more functional than structural. The pioneering physiological and structural studies in the 1950s in fact did not lead to a rigorous definition. There is still confusion on how to define neurotransmitters. As molecular biological approaches are increasingly refining the concept of a fundamental synaptic unit, many types of neuronal interactions are appearing that do not fit with the synaptic concept. Are the neural circuits underlying behaviour strictly synaptic? In dealing with these questions, a longer perspective is useful for understanding how the term arose, how it has evolved to the present, and what kinds of challenges may be coming in the future.
几乎没有哪个概念对神经科学的意义比突触更大，人们通常认为突触是两个可兴奋细胞之间的连接点。这个术语是查尔斯·谢灵顿在1897年引入的。这一事件的百年纪念是回顾该术语的起源和效用的适当时机。其中有些令人惊讶的地方。这个术语实际上并非出自他之手。他的概念更多地是功能性的而非结构性的。20世纪50年代开创性的生理学和结构研究实际上并未得出一个严谨的定义。在如何定义神经递质方面仍然存在困惑。随着分子生物学方法越来越精细地界定基本突触单位的概念，许多类型的神经元相互作用正在出现，而这些相互作用并不符合突触的概念。行为背后的神经回路严格来说都是突触性的吗？在处理这些问题时，从更长远的视角来理解这个术语是如何产生的、如何演变到现在的以及未来可能会面临哪些挑战是很有用的。
