PSY 2301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Central Nervous System, Myelin, Ependyma
16 Mar 2018
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Internal structure of a cell [on your own] Single neuron found in a rodent motor cortex. The nervous system is composed of a network of interconnected fibers: a nerve net. Nervous system is made of discrete cells. Neurons are the units of brain function. Individual cells can be visualized, which offers a way to trace where each neuron send its processes and how it connects with other neurons. Core region called the cell body, or soma (greek for body) Branching extensions, or dendrites (from greek for tree), collect information from other cells. Main root is the single axon (greek for axle), which carries messages to other neurons. A neuron has only one axon, but most have many dendrites. Human nervous system contains 86 billion neurons. Examining how one cell works is a source of insight that we can generalize to other cell types.
