NEURONE X SYNAPSE

Each of these balls, called synaptic vesicles, is loaded with about 1,000 molecules of a special type of chemical called a neurotransmitter. There is a very narrow saltwater-filled gap between the axon terminal of one neuron and the dendrite of the next called the synaptic cleft. On average, each neuron receives about five thousand synapses, mostly on the dendrites, with some on the cell body and a few on the axon. When we multiply 5,000 synapses per neuron by 100 billion neurons per human brain, the result is an enormous number as an estimate of the number of synapses in the brain: 500 trillion. To put this number in perspective, if you wanted to give away your synapses, each person on the planet (in 2017) could receive about 64,000 of them