Question: What are neurons

Nina Rzechorzek answered on 28 Apr 2020:

Neurons are electrically-active ‘nerve’ cells that are located within the central nervous system (CNS). The CNS includes the brain and the spinal cord. Some types of neuron have their cell body in the CNS, but also have long processes that reach out to other parts of the body e.g. motor neurons control movement by instructing muscle cells to contract; some motor neurons are up to 1 metre long! ‘Nerve’ cells that extend or originate outside of the CNS are part of the peripheral nervous system (PNS). All nerve cells have the ability to communicate with other cells by sending electrical signals – this is the fastest form of communication in the body (the response you make to touching a hot surface is orchestrated by nerve cells almost instantaneously – you don’t have to think about it). It’s important to realise that more than half of the cells in your brain are not actually neurons – the rest of the cells are called ‘glia’ which means ‘glue’ but they do a lot more than just sticking all the neurons together! There are many different types of glia and we are only just beginning to understand what they all do – but they’re very important to brain health and disease.