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Gap Junctions in the Nervous System: An Introduction

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Gap Junctions in the Nervous System

Part of the book series: Neuroscience Intelligence Unit ((NIU.LANDES))

Abstract

Acentury ago, it was generally believed that consciousness and movement resulted from the flow of substances freely throughout the interconnected neural network. This Reticular Theory eventually gave way to the Neuronal Doctrine in which the nervous system was envisioned as a composite of discrete cells, where direct transfer of information among neurons is a rare event, occurring only in specialized nuclei and under specific circumstances. Nevertheless, as chapters in this volume testify, gap junctions, the structural elements responsible for direct intercellular communication, are increasingly detected between cells in both the central and peripheral nervous systems of mammals, including man.

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Spray, D.C., Dermietzel, R. (1996). Gap Junctions in the Nervous System: An Introduction. In: Gap Junctions in the Nervous System. Neuroscience Intelligence Unit. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-21935-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-21935-5_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-21937-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-21935-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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