Nerves and Neuron | Things you Need to Know | Type of Nerves | Nervous System | thetutee

 

 

Nerve and neuron

The nervous system is an essential part of the human body that helps the transmission of signals across the various parts of the body, or it releases messages back and forth from the brain to the different parts of the body and also helps in the coordination of voluntary and involuntary actions of the body at the cellular level.

 

The nervous system consists of a special type of cell called the neuron also known as the nerve cell the neurons connect to each other using a synapse which is a structure that acts like a pathway connection that transmits signals to other cells to form the nervous system.

Neurons have special structures that allow them to send signals rapidly and precisely to other cells by providing a common pathway for the passage of these electrochemical nerve impulses, neurons are responsive in nature, by which we imply that, the neurons respond to feelings and communicate the presence of that feeling to the central nervous system which in turn is processed and sent to the other parts of the body for action.

 

The neurons are the basic constituents of the brain vertebral spinal cord the ventral nerve cord and the peripheral ganglia, which is a mass of nerve cell bodies, can be categorized into three types of sensory neurons, motor neurons and inter neurons.

 

Sensory neurons

Sensory neurons allow us to receive information from the outside world through our senses. The sensory neurons evoke the sensation of touch, pain, vision, hearing and taste these are usually present in the sensory organs like the eyes, inner ear and so on which send the signals to the spinal cord and the brain inter neurons communicate and connect with each other and represent the majority of neurons in our brain they allow us to think, see and perceive our surroundings.

Motor neurons

Motor neurons are neurons that receive impulses from the spinal cord or the brain and send them from the muscles causing muscular contraction and these also affect the gland secretion.

A typical neuron has a soma in its center which contains the nucleus of the cell and hence, this is where the protein synthesis occurs. The neural function is based on the synaptic signaling; the pathway that helps in the transmission of signals process, which is partly electrical and partly chemical, the electrical aspect depends on the property of the neurons membrane.

Every neuron is surrounded by a plasma membrane which is a bilayer of lipid molecules that are comprised of various protein structures. A lipid bilayer is a powerful electrical insulator but in neurons many protein structures embedded in the membrane are electrically active.

Cell division cannot take place in neurons as they lack one of the two cylindrical cellular structures (spindle fiber) that aid in cell division this is consistent with the simple cell division nature of the cell.

Dendrites

Dendrites are the extensions of the cell with many branches whose structures can be called as a dendritic tree they protect from the cell body and are sometimes referred to as fibers, they are also called as a ferrant processes because they transmit impulses to the neuron cell body.

Axon

There is only one axon that projected from each cell body which is a finer cable like projector it is usually elongated and carries impulses away from the cell body that is away from the soma it is called an efferent process many axons are surrounded by a segmented white fatty substance called myelin sheaths.

 

The difference between nerve and neuron

nerve	neuron
It is whitish fiber of neuron cell which carry nerve impulses to central nervous system (CNS) and from CNS to the effectors.	Specialized cell involved in transmission of nerve impulses.
Found only in peripheral nervous system	Found in both peripheral nervous system and central nervous system
Composed of many nerves’ fiber, blood vessels and lymphatics	Composed of an axon, dendrites, and cell body
Act as conducting zone for transporting signals	Chemical and electronic signal are generated here
Cranial nerve, spinal nerve, motor nerve and sensory nerve are the four types of nerve	Sensory neuron, motor neuron and inter neuron are the three types of neurons