Mindfoolness

Chapter 1- Neurons and synapses

If you're a young scientist or perhaps a doctor, you may know the areas of human brain and what is each one for. But still, let's think about it together.

A brain is like a machine. It works hard, needs power and rest. It is mainly made of very little wires and a lot of knots. Every knot is linked to 10 000 other knots. Everytime you feel, hear, taste or see something, the information is translated into brief electric signals which are immedtately transmitted from a knot to another. It goes very fast because it is a web spreading tiny electrical impulsions; whoose speed is about 100 m/s.

The brain is a part of the human nervous system.

There are 100 billions of neurons is your brain. But let's explain everything more deeply :)

First of all, a neuron is a cell. Its primary function is to transmit information. It has a cellular body surrounded by branches (little links) which can sometimes reach the lenght of a meter! These neurons are all connected. And those connections are called "synapses". Nervous messages can travel in two different ways: electrically - inside the neuron - or chemically (which happens most of the time :)

In this case, the chemical messages are called "neurotransmitters".

When they are transmitted chemically, which happens most of the time, an electrical discharge appears at the end of the synapse. This discharge causes the emission of some chemical bodies and sends ions to the receiving neuron.

Here's a neuron diagram :