Neurons and Their Functions

NEURONS AND THEIR
FUNCTIONS
• Neurons are the cells that make up the brain and the nervous system.
• They are the fundamental units that send and receive signals which
allow us to move our muscles, feel the external world, think, form
memories and much more.
• Nervous tissue is composed of two types of cells, neurons and glial
cells.
SUPPORTING CELLS
• Are collectively called neuroglia or glial cells.
• ‘Glia’ is a Greek word which translates to glue.
• Neuroglia are much smaller than neurons and play a supporting role
for nervous tissue.
• They are about five times more abundant than neurons.
• Glial cells maintain the extracellular environment around neurons,
improve signal conduction in neurons and protect them from
pathogens.
Cont’d
• Ongoing research also suggests that glial cells even can send signals
themselves.
NEURONS
• Neurons are the basic structural and functional units of the nervous
system.
• They are responsible for the computation and communication that the
nervous system provides.
• They are electrically active and release chemical signals to communicate
between each other and with target cells.
NEURON ANATOMY
• Neurons are nucleated cells with
specialized structural properties.
• Some neurons have a single
long extension (axon) that
reaches great distances, others
are very small, star shaped cells
without obvious axons.
Cont’d
• All neurons consist of:
1. A cell body (Soma)
2. Dendrites
3. Axon
CELL BODY
• Also known as soma and contain the nucleus and other organelles.
• Associated with the nucleus, neurons also have many rough
endoplasmic reticula, called Nissl bodies.
• The nucleus, Nissl bodies and Golgi apparatuses together produce the
many ion channels and pumps that reside in the cell membrane.
• These transmembrane proteins are necessary for neurons to send
electrical signals.
Cont’d
• Most of the neurons cell bodies are located in our central nervous
system and form the grey matter.
• The cell bodies located in the peripheral nervous system are called
ganglia.
• Neurons consume much ATP and typically have many mitochondria in
their neural cell bodies.
DENDRITE
• The cell body shows both many short projections and one long
projection emerging.
• These short projections are dendrites which receive most of the input
from other neurons or stimuli in the extracellular environment.
• Dendrites are usually highly branched processes, providing locations
for other neurons to communicate with the neuron.
• Neurons can have more than one set of dendrites, which are called
dendritic trees.
• The number of dendritic trees they have depends on their role in the
body.
AXON
• Neurons have polarity, meaning that information flows in one
direction through the neuron.
• Information flows from the dendrites, across the cell body, and down
the large axon.
• An axon emerges from the cell body at the axon hillock.
• Axon hillock- is an anatomical term to describe where the cell body
and axon meet.
• The first section of the axon where an action potential is generated is
called the initial segment.
Cont’d
• In multipolar and bipolar neurons, the initial segment is found at the
axon hillock.
• However, in unipolar neurons, the initial segment is not found at the
axon hillock, and can actually be located many inches or even a few
feet from it near the dendrites.
• Multipolar neurons have multiple processes emerging from their cell
bodies (hence their name, multipolar). They have dendrites attached to
their cell bodies and often, one long axon. Motor neurons are multipolar
neurons, as are many neurons of the CNS.
• Bipolar cells have two processes, which extend from each end of the
cell body, opposite to each other. One is the axon and one the dendrite.
Bipolar cells are not very common. They are found mainly in the
olfactory epithelium (where smell stimuli are sensed), and as part of the
retina in the eye.
• Unipolar cells have one long axon emerging from the cell body, with
the cell body located between the two ends, and off to the side. At one
end of the axon are dendrites, and at the other end, the axon forms
synaptic connections with a target cell.
• Often axons are wrapped by myelin sheaths, leaving exposed sections (node of
Ranvier) between segments of myelin.
• Myelin is produced by oligodendrocytes (glial cells) in the CNS and
Schwann cells in the PNS; it acts as electrical insulation, speeding information
conduction down the neuron.
• Once information reaches the terminal end of this neuron, it is
transferred to another cell.
• The site of communication between a neuron and its target cell is called
a synapse.
• The terminal end has several branches, each with a synaptic end
bulb to store chemicals needed for communication with the next cell.
• Myelin sheath is a fatty insulating sheath that grows around many
neurons.
• Node of Ranvier is a periodic gap in the insulating sheath on the axon
of certain neurons that serves to facilitate the rapid conduction of
nerve impulse.

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NEURONS AND THEIR

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