Video narration
Does one brain cell send electricity straight into the next, like a text jumping from one phone to another? Not quite. Inside the first cell, an electrical signal travels along its length until it reaches the cell's edge. The chemicals aren't traveling down the cell; that's the electrical signal. Then comes the handoff. The signal does not simply jump the gap as electricity; the first cell releases neurotransmitters, chemical messengers. They cross the tiny space between cells, called a synapse, and attach to matching spots on the next cell. That attachment changes what the receiving cell does. It can make that cell more likely to send its own electrical signal-or less likely, holding it back. That's neurotransmission: electricity to the edge, chemicals across the synapse, then an effect that can prompt or quiet the next cell.