Related topics: brain
Neuron
hideA neuron (pronounced /ˈnjʊərɒn/ N(Y)OOR-on, also known as a neurone or nerve cell) is an excitable cell in the nervous system that processes and transmits information by electrochemical signalling. Neurons are the core components of the brain, the vertebrate spinal cord, the invertebrate ventral nerve cord, and the peripheral nerves. A number of specialized types of neurons exist: sensory neurons respond to touch, sound, light and numerous other stimuli affecting cells of the sensory organs that then send signals to the spinal cord and brain. Motor neurons receive signals from the brain and spinal cord and cause muscle contractions and affect glands. Interneurons connect neurons to other neurons within the same region of the brain or spinal cord. Neurons respond to stimuli, and communicate the presence of stimuli to the central nervous system, which processes that information and sends responses to other parts of the body for action. Neurons do not go through mitosis, and usually cannot be replaced after being destroyed, although astrocytes have been observed to turn into neurons as they are sometimes pluripotent.
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News tagged with nerve cells
Efficient technique enables thinking
Aug 19, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Nerve cells constantly create new contact points to their neighbouring cells. This is how the basic structure of our brain develops. In adults, new contact makes learning and memory possible. ...
Mathematical model of a simple circuit in a chicken brain raises fundamental questions
Dec 01, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The Web site Neuroanthropology asks visitors to complete this quote, "One of the difficulties in understanding the brain is ...". In addition to the typical facetious remarks, such as "so ...
Mammals can be stimulated to regrow damaged inner retina nerve cells
Biology /
Nov 24, 2008 |
4.7 / 5 (22) |
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Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have reported for the first time that mammals can be stimulated to regrow inner nerve cells in their damaged retinas. Located in the back of the eye, the retina's role in vision ...
When a light goes on during thought processes
Oct 01, 2008 |
4.9 / 5 (20) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Thought processes made visible: An international team of scientists headed by Mazahir Hasan of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg has succeeded in optically detecting ...
Stimulating sight: New retinal implant developed
Sep 23, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Inspired by the success of cochlear implants that can restore hearing to some deaf people, researchers at MIT are working on a retinal implant that could one day help blind people regain a ...
Scientists capture the first image of memories being made
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Jun 18, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (21) |
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The ability to learn and to establish new memories is essential to our daily existence and identity; enabling us to navigate through the world. A new study by researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute ...
Bigger not necessarily better, when it comes to brains
Nov 17, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny insects could be as intelligent as much bigger animals, despite only having a brain the size of a pinhead, say scientists at Queen Mary, University of London.
Scientists discover why we never forget how to ride a bicycle
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Jul 17, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- You never forget how to ride a bicycle - and now a University of Aberdeen led team of neuroscientists has discovered why.
Scientists identify machinery that helps make memories
Biology /
Oct 30, 2008 |
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A major puzzle for neurobiologists is how the brain can modify one microscopic connection, or synapse, at a time in a brain cell and not affect the thousands of other connections nearby. Plasticity, the ability of the brain ...
A Single Neuron Can Change the Activity of the Whole Brain
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
May 01, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The pulsing of a single neuron can switch a brain’s waves from the equivalent of a big ocean swell to ripples on a pond, according to new research from Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator ...
Forgotten but not gone - how the brain takes care of things
Nov 12, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Thanks to our ability to learn and to remember, we can perform tasks that other living things can not even dream of. However, we are only just beginning to get the gist of what really goes ...
One step closer to an artificial nerve cell
Jul 06, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at Karolinska Institutet and Linköping University (Sweden) are well on the way to creating the first artificial nerve cell that can communicate specifically with nerve cells in the body using neurotransmitters. ...
Maintaining the brain's wiring in aging and disease
Dec 05, 2008 |
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Researchers at the Babraham Institute near Cambridge, supported by the Alzheimer's Research Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), have discovered that the brain's circuitry survives ...
Function of a neglected structure in neurons revealed after 50 years
Sep 08, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Fifty years after it was originally discovered, scientists at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Switzerland, have elucidated the function of a microscopic network of ...
Neighbour's aid for jobless nerve cells
Sep 01, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the laws of nature states that empty spaces don’t stay empty for long. Be it the flowerbed, which is overgrown with weeds in no time, or the gap in your appointment calendar, which ...
