How the brain works

• Neurons

  Perform computations inside the brain that we call thought. They allow us to think, to plan ahead, to speak, to breathe, and they perform complex connections with other neuron's
• Parts of a neuron

  • Dendrites
  • Axon
  • Cell body
  • Axon Terminal
  • Myelin function
• Motorneurons

  Neurons responsible for transmitting signals from the central nervous system to muscles or glands, enabling movement and other motor actions
• Sensory neurons


  Carry sensory information from sense organs to the brain via the spinal cord, allowing us to perceive and interpret sensory stimuli
• Interneurons


  Located between other neurons, play a crucial role in processing information within the brain, perform computational tasks we associate with thought
• Glial cells

  Make up about 90% of cells in the brain, their prime function is scaffolding and support
• Dendrites

  Tree-like branches that come off the cell body, receive impulses from other neurons
• Cell body/Cell soma


  Responsible for the metabolism and the maintenance of the cell, really small in nature
• Myelin sheath

  Part protein, part fat, speeds the action potential, myelinated axons appear as white matter, unmyelinated axons appear as grey matter
• Synapse

  Where one neuron meets another, transmission of an action potential along one neuron may cause the next neuron to fire (excitation) or inhibit firing (inhibition), governed by the release of neurotransmitters