A point of contact or connection between two nerve cells (neurons) where they nearly or actually touch, allowing signals to pass between them.
From Greek 'ephapsis' (ἐφάπσις), meaning 'touching' or 'contact,' derived from 'ephaptein' (to touch upon). The term was coined in neuroscience in the early 20th century as microscopy revealed the detailed structure of neural connections.
An ephapse is actually different from a synapse—while synapses use chemical messengers to jump a gap, at an ephapse neurons can almost directly touch and pass electrical signals without chemicals, which is faster and happens in unexpected places like your retina.
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