The neurons, also commonly regarded as nerve cells, are the active elements of the nervous system. The neurons communicate with each other and at the same time communicate with other body cells through electric signal, commonly known as the nerve impulses, which then allow living organisms to respond appropriately to stimuli. The neurons may be described as receivers or transmitters of details that enable an organism to give appropriate responses depending on what is happening around their environment.
The structure of the neurons is comprised of 3 main parts which are the cell body, dendrites, and the axon. The cell body is uneven when it comes to the shape (polyhedral) and carries cytoplasm and some other granular bodies termed as Nissl's granules which carry a group of ribosomes that are used in the manufacturing of proteins (Harvey et al., 2011). Dendrites are like short string fibres which have several branches and protrude out of the cell body, and their function involves the transmission of electric impulses towards the cyton (Arnaud et al., 2014). Axons are long fibres which originate from the cell body and possess branched distal end. The axon contains neurotransmitters which control the transfer of the electric impulses to another nerve fibre and into some other structures. Additionally, the axon is made up of axoplasm, Nodes of Ranvier, Myelin sheath and the neurilemma.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The Neuron structure (Harvey et al., 2011)
The neurons have a responsibility of conducting and the transmission of information through the nerve impulses. The message or rather, the stimulus is received and carried by the sensory neurons and later on detected and examined by the Central Nervous System (Harvey et al., 2011). Through the help of the motor neurons, a response to the stimulus is given. Action potentials are produced by particular types of voltage-gated ion channels contained in the plasma membrane of the brain cells. This action, later on, causes opening up of more channels, producing a larger electric current across the cell membrane and so on. Therefore, the general function of the neurons is to ensure that organisms respond to their surrounding and respond appropriately. The neurons are, consequently, essential components of the nervous system.
References
Arnaud Messe, David Rudrauf, Habib Benali, Guillaume Marrelec (2014). Relating Structure and Function in the Human Brain: Relative Contributions of Anatomy, Stationary Dynamics, and Non-stationarities. PLOS Computational Biology .
Harvey Lodish, A. B. (2011). Molecular Cell Biology (6th Edition). W. H. Freeman.
