Quick Answer. The function of motor neurons is to release the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which are released at a junction known as the neuromuscular junction, that bind to postsynaptic receptors, causing the muscle fiber to respond and result into a muscle movement.
Adapted from The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us From Other Animals by Thomas Suddendorf, out now from Basic Books. Like many a scholar before and since, Bertrand Russell confidently asserts that certain traitsâspeech, fire, agriculture, writing, tools, and large-scale cooperationâset humans apart from animals. Although we appear to excel in many domains, such claims are not typically founded in any thorough comparison.
Since Eveâs time, different populations of humans have drifted apart genetically, forming the distinct ethnic groups we see today. Now a skeleton from around 315 BC, not long after the death of Alexander the Great, has been identified as a member of a previously unknown branch on the human family tree. It is the earliest group to diverge from all other modern humans ever identified (Genome Biology and Evolution, doi.org/v59).