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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.
The establishment of synapses enables the connection of neurons into millions of overlapping, and interlinking neural circuits. Presynaptic proteins called neurexins are central to this process. [5] One principle by which neurons work is neural summation – potentials at the postsynaptic membrane will sum up in the cell body
Simple artificial neurons, such as the McCulloch–Pitts model, are sometimes described as "caricature models", since they are intended to reflect one or more neurophysiological observations, but without regard to realism. [3] Artificial neurons can also refer to artificial cells in neuromorphic engineering that are similar to natural physical ...
While individual neurons are simple, many of them together in a network can perform complex tasks. There are two main types of neural network. In neuroscience , a biological neural network is a physical structure found in brains and complex nervous systems – a population of nerve cells connected by synapses .
Animated confocal micrograph, showing interconnections of medium spiny neurons in mouse striatum. A neural network, also called a neuronal network, is an interconnected population of neurons (typically containing multiple neural circuits). [1] Biological neural networks are studied to understand the organization and functioning of nervous systems.
Neurons form complex biological neural networks through which nerve impulses (action potentials) travel. Neurons do not touch each other (except in the case of an electrical synapse through a gap junction); instead, neurons interact at close contact points called synapses. A neuron transports its information by way of an action potential.
It changes in shape from a simple swelling at the front of the nerve cord in the earliest embryonic stages, to a complex array of areas and connections. Neurons are created in special zones that contain stem cells, and then migrate through the tissue to reach their ultimate locations. Once neurons have positioned themselves, their axons sprout ...
Not all the cells of the nervous system produce the type of spike that defines the scope of the spiking neuron models. For example, cochlear hair cells, retinal receptor cells, and retinal bipolar cells do not spike. Furthermore, many cells in the nervous system are not classified as neurons but instead are classified as glia.