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( Neurotransmitter) Neurotransmitters are chemicals that are used to relay, amplify and modulate signals between a neuron and another cell.^[1] Neurotransmitters are packaged into vesicles that cluster beneath the membrane on the presynaptic side of a synapse, and released into the synaptic cleft, where they bind to receptors located in the membrane on the postsynaptic side of the synapse. Release of neurotransmitters is most commonly driven by arrival of an action potential at the synapse, but may also be driven by graded electrical potentials. Also, there is often a low level of "baseline" release even in the absence of electrical stimulation.

Some of the properties that define a chemical as a neurotransmitter are difficult to test experimentally. For example, it is easy using an electron microscope to recognize vesicles on the presynaptic side of a synapse, but it may not be easy to determine directly what chemical is packed into them. The difficulties led to many historical controversies over whether a given chemical was or was not clearly established as a transmitter. In an effort to give some structure to the arguments, neurochemists worked out a set of experimentally tractable rules. According to the prevailing beliefs of the 1960s, a chemical can be classified as a neurotransmitter if it meets the following conditions

Modern advances in pharmacology, genetics, and chemical neuroanatomy have greatly reduced the importance of these rules. A series of experiments that may have taken several years in the 1960s can now be done, with much better precision, in a few months. Thus, it is unusual nowadays for the identification of a chemical as a neurotransmitter to remain controversial for very long.

There are many different ways to classify neurotransmitters. Dividing them into amino acids, peptides, and monoamines is sufficient for some purposes.

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