Chemical synapses are specialized junctions through which neurons signal to each other and to
non-neuronal cells such as those in muscles or glands. Chemical synapses allow neurons to form interconnected circuits within the central nervous system. They are thus
crucial to the biological computations that underlie perception and
thought. They provide the means through which the nervous system connects to and controls the other systems of the
body, for example the specialized synapse between a motor neuron and a muscle cell is called a neuromuscular junction.
In popular culture, "synapse" is often used to describe a thought in a most artistic form, or
even a "jerk reaction" to a certain stimuli.