Question

What are the types of summation?

Answer 1

Summation:

1. Summation is the additive effect of electrical impulses in multiple numbers coming on a neuromuscular junction.
2. A neuromuscular junction is the junction between a nerve cell and a muscle cell.
3. Individually these stimuli can not generate a response, but together they can generate a response.

Types of summations are as follows:

Temporal summation:

1. Action potentials of high frequency in the presynaptic neuron result in postsynaptic potentials that add to one another, and this is known as temporal summation.
2. Temporal summation converts a rapid series of weak pulses from a single source into one large signal.
3. It is the sensory summation that involves the addition of single stimuli over a very short period of time.
4. It causes an increase in frequency at the same synapse.

Spatial summation:

1. Spatial summation occurs when several weak signals from different locations are converted into one single larger signal.
2. It is the sensory summation that involves the stimulation of multiple spatially separated neurons at the same time.
3. It takes part in inhibitory synapses.