I have just learnt about neurons. I wonder why neurons have only one axon. Can they transmit nerve impulses faster and more rapidly when they have more axons? Does having more axons help in coordination?
Could anyone tell me why neurons have only…
I know someone who bought earphones that shine light in you ears. According to what he was told, there are neurons that sense light and then make you feel wide awake when activated, which seemed like snake oil to me. Apparently the pineal gland may…
What is known about the targets of Golgi staining of neurons? Are larger neurons more likely to be stained? Are specific cell types more susceptible than others?
The current wikipedia article says the mechanism is still not fully understood. What is…
I have heard and read about Peter's rule informally in the past, but never saw a formal definition or description.
Informally I have learned to understand Peter's rule as the assumed correlation between the amount of overlap between axons and…
You know how your cells die all the time and new ones are made to replace them, so you practically have a new body every maybe 5 years?
Many people say you become a completely different person every several years, but what about neural cells, do…
There are many arguments for what the unit of the neocortex is. "Columns" seem to be the standard, but what exactly those are is extremely contradictory between individuals, cortical regions, and species. Often times, when a column is referred to,…
A mechanism for ADHD stimulant medication tolerance has now been found. See http://neurosciencenews.com/adhd-medication-patient-brains-adapt-dat/.
Here's the thing though: what exactly is the "signal" that the body uses to interpret whether or not…
Some human tissue can survive without oxygen a couple of minutes, even hours.
Why are the neurons are so "weak" and depends so much on oxygen and other nutrients and cannot live without them for more than a few seconds or 1 or 2 minutes?
Are they…
The article Ants Swarm Like Brains Think really helped me to understand the way that neurons which are pretty dumb on their own (like ants) can work together to create a pretty genius system (a brain or an ant-hive). The idea is that both the…
In a neuroscience class I'm taking, it was explained that myelin covers axons in sections, the uncovered sections are called nodes of Ranvier, and signals propagate much faster in the covered sections.
But if it is faster for signals to propagate…
While having a dental surgery, I've got this question that why I can still talk, open/close my mouth, move my lips and so on while I can't feel anything at all in my mouth?
If the local anesthesia interrupts the alert that goes through brain, how is…
Are Schwann cells the only source of myelin for axons in the peripheral nervous system, or are there other neuroglia or other processes that result in myelination of PNS axons?
Suppose I have a nerve fiber consisting of several axons all running in parallel to each other. When an action potential is generated in a certain axon, this will alter the concentration of sodium and potassium ions inside the axon, and in the…
This is a follow-up question to Why do neurons die so quickly (relative to other cells) when deprived of oxygen?.
I'm particularly interested in the case of reptiles, octopuses, and other invertebrates. Could it be that mammalian neurons are…
I'm reading this paper about how neurons can connect. Wikipedia says, typically neurons connect via axon (transmitter) and dendrites (receiver) but there are also special cases where dendrites connect with dendrites, axons with with another axon,…
