imported>YuniToumei: Adding local short description: "Potential after receptor activation", overriding Wikidata description "biological process"

2025-10-17T09:44:01Z

Adding local short description: "Potential after receptor activation", overriding Wikidata description "biological process"

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{{Short description|Potential after receptor activation}}
A '''receptor potential''', also known as a ''' generator potential''',<ref>Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/generator%20potential</ref> a type of [[graded potential]], is the [[transmembrane potential difference]] produced by activation of a [[sensory receptor]].<ref>{{Cite book|first=Bertil|last=Hille|author-link=Bertil Hille|title=Ion Channels of Excitable Membranes|edition=3rd|year=2001|publisher=Sinauer|location=Sunderland, Massachusetts|chapter=Chapter 8. Sensory transduction and excitable cells.|pages=237–268|isbn=0-87893-321-2}}</ref>

A receptor potential is often produced by [[sensory transduction]].<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1109/TOH.2014.2369422 |title=Vibrotactile Sensitivity Threshold: Nonlinear Stochastic Mechanotransduction Model of the Pacinian Corpuscle |year=2015 |last1=Biswas |first1=Abhijit |journal=IEEE Transactions on Haptics |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=102–113 |pmid=25398183 |last2=Manivannan |first2=M. |last3=Srinivasan |first3=Mandyam A.|url=https://zenodo.org/record/894772 }}</ref> It is generally a [[depolarizing]] event resulting from inward [[current (electricity)|current]] flow. The influx of current will often bring the [[membrane potential]] of the sensory receptor towards the threshold for triggering an [[action potential]]. Receptor potential can work to trigger an action potential either within the same [[neuron]] or on an adjacent cell. Within the same neuron, a receptor potential can cause local current to flow to a region capable of generating an action potential by opening [[Voltage-gated ion channel| voltage-gated ion channels]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Vander's Human Physiology: The Mechanisms of Body Function|last=Widmaier|first=Eric P.|last2=Raff|first2=Hershel|last3=Strang|first3=Kevin T.|publisher=McGraw Hill|location=New York|pages=193}}</ref> A receptor potential can also cause the release of [[neurotransmitter]]s from one cell that will act on another cell, generating an action potential in the second cell.<ref name=":0" /> The magnitude of the receptor potential determines the frequency with which [[action potential]]s are generated and is controlled by adaptation, stimulus strength, and temporal summation of successive receptor potentials.<ref name=":0" /> Receptor potential relies on receptor sensitivity which can adapt slowly, resulting in a slowly decaying receptor potential or rapidly, resulting in a quickly generated but shorter-lasting receptor potential.<ref name=":0" />

An example of a receptor potential is in a [[taste bud]], where taste is converted into an electrical signal sent to the brain. When stimulated, the taste bud triggers the release of neurotransmitters through [[exocytosis]] of [[synaptic vesicle]]s from the [[presynaptic]] membrane. The neurotransmitter molecules diffuse across the [[synaptic cleft]] to the [[postsynaptic]] membrane of the primary sensory neuron, where they elicit an [[action potential]].

==See also==
*[[Resting potential]]
*[[Action potential]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Receptor Potential}}
[[Category:Receptors]]
[[Category:Electrophysiology]]
[[Category:Graded potentials]]

Receptor potential - Revision history

imported>YuniToumei: Adding local short description: "Potential after receptor activation", overriding Wikidata description "biological process"