Understanding Brain Chemistry What is it that makes us human? Is it our actions, our sense of purpose, or our ability to keep our mind on as well as perform complex tasks? Is it that we analyze our own mental processes, as well as the processes of others? What exactly is a mental state, and what creates it? Is it a level of attentiveness, an impulse, or an emotional state? What is it that allows us to experience these things? The answers all lie within our brains. The brain, like the rest of the nervous system, is composed by and large of neuralgia (glial cells), nerve cells (neurons), that are immersed in a constant flow of cerebrospinal fluid. The glial cells far outnumber the neurons, but have no axons or synapses, and therefore do not play a part in the electrical activity of the brain. They are simpler looking, much smaller, and have lower metabolic rates than neurons. Another important difference includes that glial cells maintain the ability to recover from an injury and divide their entire lives. Virchow first identified these cells in 1846, and gave them the name “neurogila”, which means nerve glue. Glial cells are credited with holding the brain together, and preserving its physical structure. They are also said to provide both chemical and electric insulation for synapses, as well as the other components of the brain, and transportation for chemicals between neurons and capillaries. Finally, glial cells are thought to break down and/or synthesize the neurotransmitters released by the neurons they shelter. Many mental illnesses are mainly caused by disorders relating to the metabolism of neurotransmitters. Neurons are the cells that create brain activity, passing chemical and electric signals from on... ... middle of paper ... ... The future, and more research, holds the keys to many more of the mysteries locked within us. Bibliography: Works Cited Brain Chemistry. beatcfsandfms.org 7 Feb. 2001 Carter, Rita. Mapping the Mind. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998 Golden, Frederic. “Probing the Chemistry of the Brain” Time. 15 Jan. 2001: 157-2 Livingstone, Churchill. “Chemisms of the Brain”. Basic and Applied Neuochemistry. Ed. R. Rodnight, H. S. Bachelard, W. L. Stahl. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1981 Posner, Michael I, Marcus E. Raichle. Images of the Mind. New York: Scietific American Library, 1994 Siegel, George J., R. Wayne Albers, Robert Katzman, and Bernard W. Agranoff, eds. Basic Neurochemistry. 2nd ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1976 Steiner, Meir, Kimberly A. Yonkers, Elias Eriksson. Mood Disorders in Women. London: Martin Dunitz Ltd, 2000
Glia cells are like the “glue”, they support the neurons of the Nervous system by holding them together.
In the last 20 years ago, there was a brain scientists that believed that neurons communicated to each other, they represented thoughts, and that glia were kind of like a stucco and mortar holding the house together. They were also considered simple insulators for neuron communication. There is a few of types of glial cells, but recently scientists have begun to focus on a particular type of glial cell it is called the astrocyte; it’s an abundant in the cortex. As you go up the evolutionary ladder, astrocytes in the cortex increase in size and number, with humans having the most astrocytes and also the biggest. Scientists also discovered that astrocytes communicate to themselves in the cortex and they are also capable of sending information to neurons. Astrocytes are also the adult stem cell in the brain and control blood flow to regions of brain activity.
Glial cell: Glial cell is a supportive cell in the central nervous system. Unlike neurons, glial cells do not conduct electrical impulses. The glial cells are around neurons and give support for insulation between them. Glial cells are the most efficient cell types in the central nervous system. Types of glial cells include oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, ependymal cells, Schwann cells, microglia, and satellite
The central nervous system is a collection of cells within the brain specialized to send specific signals throughout the body in order to relay the messages necessary for proper functioning. The way these cells, also called neurons, communicate with one another is through the process of releasing neurotransmitters. A balanced proportion of neurotransmitters are crucial for a healthy functioning mind. In situations where the neurotransmitters get out of sync by becoming too prevalent or sparse within the synaptic clefts, a wide spectrum of mental illness can be the result.
The brain is part of the central nervous system, which consists of neurons and glia. Neurons which are the excitable nerve cells of the nervous system that conduct electrical impulses, or signals, that serve as communication between the brain, sensory receptors, muscles, and spinal cord. In order to achieve rapid communication over a long distance, neurons have developed a special ability for sending electrical signals, called action potentials, along axons. The way in which the cell body of a neuron communicates with its own terminals via the axon is called conduction. In order for conduction to occur, an action potential which is an electrical signal that occurs in a neuron due to ions moving across the neuronal membrane which results in depolarization of a neuron, is to be generated near the cell body area of the axon. Wh...
The human brain and that of any species contains nerve cells that link to each other connecting the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body (Johnson, 2013). These nerve cells are neurons that connected through synapses in a web-like fashion forming neural networks (Coon & Mitterer, 2001). Neural networks make generation and transmission of action potentials (known as electrical impulses) possible along neurons. An action potential is generated across an axon hillock of a nerve cell and is propagated along the axon by the opening of voltage-gated ion channels one after the other causing positive ions to flow in and out the axon (Johnson, 2013).
In Learning and Memory, Sprenger uses the hand as an example for the structure of the neuron saying, “The cell body can be compared to the palm of your hand. Information enters the cell body through appendages called dendrites, represented by your fingers. Like the fingers, dendrites are constantly moving and seeking out new information. If the neuron needs to send information to another neuron, the message is sent through the axon, represented by the wrist. When a neuron sends information down its axon to communicate with another neuron, it never actually touches the other neuron”. As the neurons are making connections with other neurons, dendrites are being created, strengthening the network (Sprenger 2). Even though the brain has approximately 100 billion neurons, each neuron can have up to 10,000 connections with other neurons. This means that the brain has over one quadrillion connections. As previously said, learning is “two neurons communicating with each other”. If each connection is a communication, and there are over one quadrillion connections, then the brain is a power house for communication (Sprenger
Neurons live both in and outside the central nervous system. Understanding how the neurons work is vital to understanding the nervous system.
...fficient chemical messenger that enable nerve cells to communicate with each other in the brain, allowing them to perform their jobs such as thinking, learning and remembering. (Alzheimer’s Association, 2014)
Neurons and glia (cells that support neurons) are specialized cells for electrical signaling over long distances. Understanding neuronal structure is important for understanding neuronal function.
...areas, and creation of gitter cells (Gehrmann et al., 1995). Moreover, considering the importance of microglial, without microglial cells, the CNS will not survive (mortality) from external environment substance and pathogens. Thirdly, microglial cells are also responsible for homeostasis, negative and positive feedback loop, in CNS (Aloisi, 2001). Microglia is known for achieving complex communication via triggering signals molecules with other astrocytes, neural tissues, T lymphocytes and hematopoietic stem cells (Aloisi, 2001).
Human brain consists of billions of cells interconnected together, with each performing its separate functions. It consists of two explicit categories of nerves: neurons and glia cells. Neuron is a single nerve cell in the entire nervous system; which is electrically excitable cell that carries information after being processed via chemical or electrical signals. One of its key characteristics is that it does not undergo cell division. In addition, it maintains a voltage gradient for all the neurons across its membranes. Glia cells, on the other hand, its functionality is to maintain homeostasis.
The brain and spinal cord make up the central nervous system. The brain doesn't just control your organs, but also can think and remember. That part of the brain is called the mind.
Both the CNS and PNS communicate via neurons. Neurons are nerve cells that consist of den...
What makes us human? What underlying characteristic differentiates humans from animals or Gods? Where does the essence of humanity lie?