The_Neron

The Neron The Neuron A neuron is a cell that is located in the brain or spinal cord. It is the “basic functional unit of the nervous system” (Encarta World English Dictionary, 2001). There are 10 billion neurons that are interconnected in the brain. Neurons communicate with each other by using biochemical reactions. The main goal of neuron is to bring important information about the world to the brain, or to cause a change in a target cell such as a muscle or glandular cell (Lewis, 1999). The Main Structural Components of a Neuron: Each neuron is made up of three main components: 1. a cell body which is also called a soma 2. a nerve fiber which is called an axon 3. a system of branches called dendrites The cell body contains the cell nucleus, and cytoplasm with a lot of different organelles in the cytoplasm. (Toga, 2001) Its main function is to take care of all of the maintenance functions of the neuron. The axon carries electrical signals away from the cell body. Axons length can vary from 0.1 millimeters to a meter in length (Lewis, 1999). Most axons are covered with neurilemma cells that wrap around a part neuron, cell, neurons, called, axon, 1999, neurotransmitters, one, another, axons, potential, dendrites, signals, nerve, ions, electrical, brain, action, soma, lewis, gleitman, positive, part, membrane, main, again, world, summation, sodium, receptor, new, neurotransmitter, information, fire, communicate