Synapses communicate the information carried by action potentials from one neuron to the next in neural circuits. The mechanisms underlying postsynaptic potentials generated during synaptic transmission are closely related to the mechanisms that generate other types of neuronal electrical signals, namely, ionic flow through membrane channels. In the case of electrical synapses, these channels are connexons; direct but passive flow of current through connexons is the basis for transmission. In the case of chemical synapses, channels with smaller and more selective pores are activated by the binding of neurotransmitters to postsynaptic receptors following release of the neurotransmitters from the presynaptic terminal. The large number of neurotransmitters in the nervous system can be divided into two broad classes: small-molecule transmitters and neuropeptides. Neurotransmitters are synthesized from defined precursors by regulated enzymatic pathways, packaged into one of several types of synaptic vesicles, and released into the synaptic cleft in a Ca²⁺-dependent manner. Transmitter agents are released presynaptically in units, or quanta, reflecting their storage within synaptic vesicles. Vesicles discharge their contents into the synaptic cleft when the presynaptic depolarization generated by the invasion of an action potential opens voltage-gated calcium channels, allowing Ca²⁺ to enter the presynaptic terminal. Calcium triggers neurotransmitter release by binding to the Ca²⁺ sensor protein, synaptotagmin, working in concert with SNARE proteins found on both vesicle and plasma membranes. Postsynaptic receptors are a diverse group of proteins that transduce binding of neurotransmitters into electrical signals by opening or closing postsynaptic ion channels. Two broadly different families of neurotransmitter receptors have evolved to carry out the postsynaptic signaling actions of neurotransmitters. The postsynaptic currents produced by the synchronous opening or closing of ion channels change the conductance of the postsynaptic cell, thus increasing or decreasing its excitability. Conductance changes that increase the probability of firing an action potential are excitatory, whereas those that decrease the probability of generating an action potential are inhibitory. Because postsynaptic neurons are usually innervated by many different inputs, the integrated effect of the conductance changes underlying all EPSPs and IPSPs produced in a postsynaptic cell at any moment determines whether or not the cell fires an action potential. The postsynaptic effects of neurotransmitters are terminated by the degradation of the transmitter in the synaptic cleft, by transport of the transmitter back into cells, or by diffusion out of the synaptic cleft. The response elicited at a given synapse depends on the type of neurotransmitter released and the postsynaptic complement of receptors and associated channels.