A neurons consists of three parts;
(i) Cell body: It is a typical animal cell which contains cytoplasm and a nucleus.
(ii) Dendrites: A number of long and thin fibres comes out from the cell body of the neurons, they are nerve fibre. The shorter fibres on the cell body of neurons are called dendrites.
(iii) Axon: The longest fibre on the cell body of neurons is called axon. It has an insulating and protective sheath (or cover)of myelin around it.
Function:
The information, acquired at the end of the dendritic tip of a nerve cell, sets off a chemical reaction that creates an electrical impulse.
This impulse travels from the dendrite to the cell body, and then along the axon to its end. At the end of the axon, the electrical impulse sets off the release of some chemicals.
These chemicals cross the gap, or synapse, and start a similar electrical impulse in a dendrite of the next neuron. This is a general scheme of how nervous impulses travel in the body.
A similar synapse finally allows delivery of such impulses from neurons to other cells, such as muscles cells or gland.
It is thus no surprise that nervous tissue is made up of an organised network of nerve cells or neurons, and is specialised for conducting information via electrical impulses from one part of the body to another.
