Neural Tissue - Neurons

  1. A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information through electrical and chemical signals.
    2. Diagram of a typical myelinated vertebrate motor neuron

    Diagram of a typical myelinated motor neuron.

  2. The cell body is the bulbous end of a neuron, containing the cell nucleus.
  3. Dendrites are the branched projections of a neuron that act to propagate the electrochemical stimulation received from other neural cells to the cell body of the neuron from which the dendrites project.
  4. A synapse is a structure that permits a neuron (or nerve cell) to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another neuron. Some authors generalize this concept to include the communication from a neuron to any other cell type.
  5. An axon, also known as a nerve fiber, is a long, slender projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, that typically conducts electrical impulses away from the neuron's cell body.
  6. Axon terminals (also called synaptic boutons) are distal terminations of the branches of an axon.
  7. In a neuron, synaptic vesicles store various neurotransmitters that are released at the synapse.
    8. The synthesis, packaging, secretion, and removal of neurotransmitters.

    Life-cycle of a neurotransmitter.

  8. Neurotransmitters are endogenous chemicals that transmit signals across a chemical synapse, such as in a neuromuscular junction, from one neuron to another target neuron, muscle cell, or gland cell.