The term synapse is from the Greek word synaptein, for "juncture" or "fasten together," by way of the Latin synapsis. It refers to the specialized junction found between nerve cells. It was conceived by the British pioneer neurophysiologist Sir Charles Sherrington (1857-1952) to describe the then-novel microscopic observations that the "end-feet" of one neuron physically contacted, in an intimate manner, other NEU RONS to which it was structurally connected. A similar point of connection between peripheral nerves and their targets is usually referred to as a junction.

Figure 2
Neuronal Network. Synapses can be seen here with their narrow synaptic clefts, only 20 micrometers wide, across which a nerve impulse is transmitted from one neuron to the next. Hundreds of thousands of nerve endings may form synapses on the cell body and dendrites of a single neuron. As an electrical impulse reaches the synaptic cleft, it cannot be...