SSRI Synapse: Serotonin Reuptake Inhibition

This simulator renders a real 3D serotonergic synapse — a presynaptic terminal docking vesicles, a cleft where serotonin diffuses, and a postsynaptic membrane studded with receptors. Firing the presynaptic terminal releases a quantum of serotonin molecules that random-walk across the cleft: some bind postsynaptic receptors, most are recaptured by SERT transporters and recycled. Raising the SSRI dose slider competitively blocks those transporters exactly as fluoxetine or sertraline would in a real neuron, modeled with genuine Michaelis-Menten saturable transporter kinetics and competitive-inhibition math — watch synaptic serotonin concentration, receptor occupancy and the live reuptake rate all respond as the drug takes effect.