A neuron, also called a nerve cell, is a specialized cell that transmits information through the nervous system using electrical and chemical signals. Neurons are the basic functional unit of the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves, and the human brain alone contains an estimated 86 billion of them, each one capable of forming thousands
A specialized cell that transmits information through the nervous system using electrical and chemical signals.
Neuroplasticity, also called brain plasticity, is the nervous system ability to change its structure and function in response to experience, learning, injury, or environmental demands. This capacity for reorganization occurs at many levels, from strengthening or weakening individual synapses to, in some circumstances, forming entirely new connections between distant brain regions, and it continues to
The nervous system ability to change its structure and function in response to experience, learning, or injury.
A neurotransmitter is a chemical messenger released by a neuron at a synapse that travels across a tiny gap to influence the activity of another neuron, a muscle cell, or a gland cell. Neurotransmitters are the primary means by which neurons communicate with one another, translating an electrical signal inside the sending neuron into a
A chemical messenger released by a neuron at a synapse that influences the activity of another cell.
A synapse is the specialized junction where one neuron communicates with another neuron, a muscle cell, or a gland cell, typically by releasing chemical messengers across a microscopic gap. The human brain is estimated to contain well over 100 trillion synapses, and the specific pattern of which neurons connect to which, and how strongly, is
The specialized junction where one neuron communicates with another cell, typically via chemical messengers.