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A neuron, neurone, [1] or nerve cell is an excitable cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network in the nervous system. They are located in the brain and spinal cord and help to receive and conduct impulses.
The cell is named after its characteristic triangular-shaped soma. Since there is a broad range of functions performed by different types of neurons in diverse parts of the nervous system, there is a wide variety in the size, shape, and electrochemical properties of neurons. Neurons can be found in different shapes and sizes and can be ...
Moreover, the distinctions based on function between neurons and other cells such as cardiac and muscle cells are not helpful. Thus, the fundamental difference between a neuron and a nonneuronal cell is a matter of degree. Another major class of cells found in the nervous system are glial cells. These cells are only recently beginning to ...
The enteric nervous system functions to control the gastrointestinal system. Nerves that exit from the brain are called cranial nerves while those exiting from the spinal cord are called spinal nerves. The nervous system consists of nervous tissue which, at a cellular level, is defined by the presence of a special type of cell, called the ...
Nervous tissue, also called neural tissue, is the main tissue component of the nervous system.The nervous system regulates and controls body functions and activity. It consists of two parts: the central nervous system (CNS) comprising the brain and spinal cord, and the peripheral nervous system (PNS) comprising the branching peripheral nerves.
The PNS includes motor neurons, mediating voluntary movement; the autonomic nervous system, comprising the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system and regulating involuntary functions; and the enteric nervous system, a semi-independent part of the nervous system whose function is to control the gastrointestinal system.
Ramón y Cajal's drawing of the cells of the chick cerebellum, from Estructura de los centros nerviosos de las aves, Madrid, 1905. The neuron doctrine is the concept that the nervous system is made up of discrete individual cells, a discovery due to decisive neuro-anatomical work of Santiago Ramón y Cajal and later presented by, among others, H. Waldeyer-Hartz. [1]
The nervous system is the part of an animal that coordinates its actions by transmitting signals to and from different parts of its body. [7] In vertebrates it consists of two main parts, the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). The CNS consists of the brain, including the brainstem, and spinal cord.