Neuron: Function And Parts

             Their specific function is to allow our brains to learn, reason, and remember. The brain includes billions of neurons, so does your spinal cord and all the nerves that branch out from the spinal cord to the body's glands, organs, and muscles. Each neuron is a cell that uses biochemical reactions to receive, process and transmit information.
             Each neuron may have thousands of branches that connect it to other neurons. The branches are called dendrites or axons. Dendrites are short fibers that extend from the neuron cell body which receive information from other neurons and sensory receptors. Axons, long fluid-filled tubes, carry messages away from the cell body to another neuron.
             Once the information is passed through the dendrites it is received by the cell body (soma). The soma and the enclosed nucleus don't play a significant role in the processing of incoming and outgoing data. Their primary function is to perform the continuous maintenance and energy required to keep the neuron functional.
             To increase neuron communication and speed, a myelin sheath is present on the axons. It also serves as a protective covering made by glial cells, which is white and fatty. Axons with myelin sheath process information up to twenty times faster than axons without the covering.
             The synapse is the space between the axon of one neuron and the dendrites of the next neuron in a nerve pathway. These gaps are extremely small. Chemicals, not electrical impulses, travel across the gaps. These chemicals are neurotransmitters. There is knowledge of about fifty types of neurotransmitters, with more to be most likely discovered in the future.
             Human bodies make neurotransmitters. Some of the chemical materials for neurotransmitters, like amino acids, come from the foods we eat. Altering neurotransmitters can change whether the stimulation is excitatory or inhibitory. Many drugs such as alcohol and LSD have dramatic effects on the production or destruction of these critical chemicals.