A neuron is a nerve cell. The brain is made up of approximately 100 billion neurons. They kind of look like a star with a tail. Some neurons are very short…less than a millimeter in length. Some neurons are very long…a meter or more! The axon of a motor neuron in the spinal cord that innervates a muscle in the foot can be about 1 meter (3 feet) in length. Although all the neurons lined up side by side would stretch 1000 km, the line would be only 10 microns wide…so you wouldn’t be able to see it without a microscope
Neurons are similar to other cells in the body in some ways such as:
Neurons are surrounded by a membrane.
Neurons have a nucleus that contains genes.
Neurons contain cytoplasm, mitochondria and other “organelles”.
However, neurons differ from other cells in the body in some ways such as:
Neurons have specialized projections called dendrites and axons. Dendrites bring information to the cell body and axons take information away from thecell body.
Neurons communicate with each other through an electrochemical process.
Neurons form specialized connections called “synapses” and produce special chemicals called “neurotransmitters” that are released at the synapse.
There are approximately 1 quadrillion synapses in the human brain. That’s 1,000,000,000,000,000 synapses and a lot of zeros!
Neurons are cells of your brain. Like all other cells they are the smallest unit in the living organism (when you start going further down the smallest building block of every “thing” is atoms). But if you are wondering what’s inside neurons: more than half of neurons are water, and the rest is a mixture of molecules, mainly proteins, lipids and carbohydrates.
Neurons work by sending messages electrochemically. Electrochemically means that chemicals cause an electrical signal because some of the chemicals in your body are “electrically-charged” which are called as “ions”. The important ions in the nervous system are sodium (Na) and potassium (K), calcium (Ca) and chloride (Cl). Na, K and Ca are positively charged whereas Cl is negatively charged. Also nerve cells are surrounded by a membrane that allows some ions to pass through and sometimes blocks the passage of other ions. This type of membrane is called semi-permeable. Neurons received various stimuli from your body. For instance imagine I grabbed your arm and started pressing it harder. When I first grab your arm, this message is perceived by neurons through activity of ions going in and out of a neuron, this makes your brain understands someone is grabbing your arm and this is how you feel it (this all process happens in less than a milisecond – neurons are super fast). When I start squeezing your arm more, more messages are sent to neurons indicating the elevating pressure in your arm, and when you feel pain, neurons send a different message back to arm which makes you take your arm away from me.
Neurons are so important that they are the information processing centers – neuroscience is one of the hottest fields which studies the nervous system and interaction of neurons. You can find more about neurons through this link: https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/ap.html
Just to add another interesting fact on neurons to some already great answers…
Lots of cells in our body continue to divide when we need them, Like if you get a paper cut on your skin you need your skin cells to divide to heal the wound. Once a stem cell – which can become any cell in the body – going through a change process call ‘differentiation’ to become a neuron, it can no longer divide. So if something happens to our neurons and they die, we can’t make anymore. That’s why spinal injuries can leave people paralyzed – once the neuron has damaged beyond repair its gone!
But one really cool thing our neurons can do is make connections with each other called synapses. One neuron can connect to many other neurons. In the brain the more connections the neurons have the more signals they can send and they can run more efficiently. Even if a neuron dies, the surrounding neurons can make new connections with each other. We can keep these connections strong by exercising our brain. This can be done by doing things such as crossword puzzles, reading and doing your homework!
A neuron is a nerve cell. The brain is made up of approximately 100 billion neurons. They kind of look like a star with a tail. Some neurons are very short…less than a millimeter in length. Some neurons are very long…a meter or more! The axon of a motor neuron in the spinal cord that innervates a muscle in the foot can be about 1 meter (3 feet) in length. Although all the neurons lined up side by side would stretch 1000 km, the line would be only 10 microns wide…so you wouldn’t be able to see it without a microscope
Neurons are similar to other cells in the body in some ways such as:
Neurons are surrounded by a membrane.
Neurons have a nucleus that contains genes.
Neurons contain cytoplasm, mitochondria and other “organelles”.
However, neurons differ from other cells in the body in some ways such as:
Neurons have specialized projections called dendrites and axons. Dendrites bring information to the cell body and axons take information away from thecell body.
Neurons communicate with each other through an electrochemical process.
Neurons form specialized connections called “synapses” and produce special chemicals called “neurotransmitters” that are released at the synapse.
There are approximately 1 quadrillion synapses in the human brain. That’s 1,000,000,000,000,000 synapses and a lot of zeros!
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Neurons are cells of your brain. Like all other cells they are the smallest unit in the living organism (when you start going further down the smallest building block of every “thing” is atoms). But if you are wondering what’s inside neurons: more than half of neurons are water, and the rest is a mixture of molecules, mainly proteins, lipids and carbohydrates.
Neurons work by sending messages electrochemically. Electrochemically means that chemicals cause an electrical signal because some of the chemicals in your body are “electrically-charged” which are called as “ions”. The important ions in the nervous system are sodium (Na) and potassium (K), calcium (Ca) and chloride (Cl). Na, K and Ca are positively charged whereas Cl is negatively charged. Also nerve cells are surrounded by a membrane that allows some ions to pass through and sometimes blocks the passage of other ions. This type of membrane is called semi-permeable. Neurons received various stimuli from your body. For instance imagine I grabbed your arm and started pressing it harder. When I first grab your arm, this message is perceived by neurons through activity of ions going in and out of a neuron, this makes your brain understands someone is grabbing your arm and this is how you feel it (this all process happens in less than a milisecond – neurons are super fast). When I start squeezing your arm more, more messages are sent to neurons indicating the elevating pressure in your arm, and when you feel pain, neurons send a different message back to arm which makes you take your arm away from me.
Neurons are so important that they are the information processing centers – neuroscience is one of the hottest fields which studies the nervous system and interaction of neurons. You can find more about neurons through this link: https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/ap.html
0
Just to add another interesting fact on neurons to some already great answers…
Lots of cells in our body continue to divide when we need them, Like if you get a paper cut on your skin you need your skin cells to divide to heal the wound. Once a stem cell – which can become any cell in the body – going through a change process call ‘differentiation’ to become a neuron, it can no longer divide. So if something happens to our neurons and they die, we can’t make anymore. That’s why spinal injuries can leave people paralyzed – once the neuron has damaged beyond repair its gone!
But one really cool thing our neurons can do is make connections with each other called synapses. One neuron can connect to many other neurons. In the brain the more connections the neurons have the more signals they can send and they can run more efficiently. Even if a neuron dies, the surrounding neurons can make new connections with each other. We can keep these connections strong by exercising our brain. This can be done by doing things such as crossword puzzles, reading and doing your homework!
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