Question

1. How electrochemical processes can be used for communication and how can the transmission process be affected by medications?

2. What is a main difference in the pathological process affecting nervous system in case of the patient with botulism comparing to the case of tetanus?

Answer 1

1. How electrochemical processes can be used for communication and how can the transmission process be affected by medications?

Neurons are the processes,that would be communicating through electrochemical processes. The sensory receptors would be interacting with different stimuli in the form of temperature, sound, light or pain, gets transformed in a code,which would be getting carried into the brain through a neuron chain. This information would be interpreted through a neuron system, which gets carried through dendrites and axons. This transmission would be by changes in the electrical properties of the cell, referred to as the action potential.

Action potentials would be initiated as a messenger would be attaching itself on the receptor. As that would take place, there would be trigger of an electrical signal, which gets generated through neurons. As the signal would be reaching the axon end, neurotransmitter would be released.

As a result of medicines, there may be an increase or decrease in the electrochemical signals, depending on the type of drug use, which may be slowing or the processing of brain, or in some cases would be blocking the signals to reach the receptors, example, blocking the pain signals. In some cases, the drugs may also be inducing calcium discharge, which could lead to tension development, being triggered through discharges of action potential.