HomeBiologyNeuromuscular Junction: Quantal Synaptic Transmission

Quantal Release Statistics: 2D Synapse Model

Interactive 2D model of quantal synaptic transmission: fire trials across a fixed set of release sites, watch the binomial vesicle-release histogram build peak by peak, and see live quantal analysis recover the true release-site count N and release probability p from the mean and variance of the trials.

Biology2DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version
2d-neurophysiology ↗ Open standalone

This 2D counterpart strips the neuromuscular junction down to its core statistics: a fixed grid of N release sites, each an independent coin flip with probability p on every trial. Firing a trial genuinely runs N separate Bernoulli draws, sums the released quanta into an end-plate-potential amplitude, and animates the fusing sites and released transmitter live. Run many trials and the running histogram builds the classic multi-peaked quantal distribution in real time — while a live quantal-analysis panel recovers the true N and p purely from the mean and variance of the trials, exactly as del Castillo and Katz first inferred synaptic quantal content from statistics alone.

⚙ Under the hood

Fire an action potential at a 3D neuromuscular junction and watch real binomial vesicle release, Ca2+-dependent quantal content, and end-plate potential summation decide whether the muscle fiber fires.

neurophysiologysynapseneuromuscular junctionquantal releaseacetylcholineaction potential

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install

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