Question

Give a brief account on neurons.

Answer 1

Neuron or nerve cell is the fundamental unit of the nervous system. The major function of the neuron is to receive and integrate the incoming signal and then based on that transfer signal to other neurons, muscles or glands.

The basic structure of a nerve cell/ neuron is majorly classified into three parts - dendrites, cell body/ soma, and axon.

Neurons receive and process the incoming information using dendrites and the cell body. The incoming signal can be either excitatory or inhibitory. Each neuron contains more than one set of dendrites. Thus neuron receives multiple information at the same time using their dendritic trees. Whether a neuron gets excited or not at a time depends on the sum total of all excitatory and inhibitory signals it received at that point in time.

If the neuron gets excited, the impulse, or the action potential, is conducted down to the axons. The axon of some nerve cells (myelinated neurons) has myelin sheath surrounded at regular intervals. Myelin sheath, formed by Schwann cells, creates localized insulation zones thereby enhancing the conduction speed of action potential.

The axon splits into multiple branches with each branch endings develop swellings, called an axon/ synaptic terminals. These synaptic terminals create synaptic junctions that connect the neuron to another neurons or effector muscle cells and enables transmission of information in-between two connected cells.