neuron
Sign in to saveA neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is a cell that is excitable, firing electric signals called action potentials across a neural network in the nervous system, mainly in the central nervous system, and helps to receive and conduct impulses. Neurons communicate with other cells via synapses, which are specialized connections that commonly use minute amounts of chemical neurotransmitters to pass the electric signal from the presynaptic neuron to the target cell through the synaptic gap.
AI overview
A neuron is a specialized cell in your nervous system that fires electrical signals to communicate with other cells and process information throughout your body. Neurons pass these signals to each other through connections called synapses, using tiny amounts of chemicals called neurotransmitters to bridge the gaps between them.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Neuron.name
- Neuron
- Neuron.image
- Blausen 0657 MultipolarNeuron.png
- Neuron.caption
- Anatomy of a multipolar neuron
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
33 sectionsContents
- Nervous system
- Anatomy and histology
- Membrane
- Histology and internal structure
- Classification
- Structural classification
- Polarity
- Other
- Functional classification
- Direction
- Action on other neurons
- Discharge patterns
- Neurotransmitter
- Multimodel classification
- Connectivity
- Nonelectrochemical signaling
- Mechanisms for propagating action potentials
- Neural coding
- All-or-none principle
- Etymology and spelling
- History
- Neuron doctrine
- Compartmental modelling of neurons
- Neurons in the brain
- Neurological disorders
- Demyelination
- Axonal degeneration
- Development
- Nerve regeneration
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is a cell that is excitable, firing electric signals called action potentials across a neural network in the nervous system, mainly in the central nervous system, and helps to receive and conduct impulses. Neurons communicate with other cells via synapses, which are specialized connections that commonly use minute amounts of chemical neurotransmitters to pass the electric signal from the presynaptic neuron to the target cell through the synaptic gap.
Neurons are the main components of nervous tissue in all animals except sponges and placozoans. Plants and fungi do not have nerve cells. Molecular evidence suggests that the ability to generate electric signals first appeared in evolution some 700 to 800 million years ago, during the Tonian period. Predecessors of neurons were the peptidergic secretory cells. They eventually gained new gene modules which enabled cells to create post-synaptic scaffolds and ion channels that generate fast electrical signals. The ability to generate electric signals was a key innovation in the evolution of the nervous system.