If you ask the average American if they can explain to you how neurons work they will probably give you a blank stare. Much of what we know about neurons has been just discovered in the past 100 years. We have just scratched the surface on how our brain works. First lets define what a neuron is. A neuron is a cell that receives information and transmits it to other cells by conducting electrochemical impulses. The parts of a neuron are the dendrites, cell body (soma), axon, and in some myelin sheath.
- Dendrites are branching fibers that get narrower near their ends. The dendrite is shaped like a tree and it is lined with synaptic receptors that make it possible to receive information from other neurons.
- Cell body of the neuron is like any other cell in the body. It contains the nucleus, ribosomes, mitochondria, and more.
- Axon is the main road through where the information being send is traveling through.
- Myelin sheath is an insulating material that most axons have.
Thanks for breaking down the parts and further explaining what the neuron does. It's crazy to think that those neurons are what tells our body what to do. For instance, as I'm typing this neurons are shooting around telling my fingers what to type...lol.
ReplyDeleteInformative posts, thanks!
I really enjoyed your post and the video as well! Knowing that if you magnify a neuron to a size that you could actually see, a single hair would be six-feet thick is astounding! As the video explains, the human brain contains roughly 100 billion neurons, and if we were able to 'walk through the brain', it would take about 300 hundred years just glimpse all the neurons -- I found that very awesome, and I really like how the video made comparisons like that. The video was very informative, and the music within the video complemented it well.
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