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Mechanical Waves May Shake Up Neuroscience
The neuron is the foundational unit of the nervous system. Billions of these spindly cells must constantly chatter in order to form our memories, emotions, and sensations. Neurons transmit their signals across distances that range from mere millimeters to the entire length of the leg. This transmission is the biophysical basis of how neurons communicate. In simple terms, the neuron must receive a signal at one end, then carry that signal to its other end where the signal will be passed to the next cell. Our interneurons pass these signals to one another like buckets of water in a fire brigade.
In order to understand more about how this process works, we must look at the structure of a neuron. Generally, a nerve cell can be divided into three parts: the cell body (or soma), the dendrites, and the axon. The cell body contains the nucleus and other organelles common among animal cells — such as the mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum. Dendrites are branching structures which the neurons use to receive information from other cells. This information is carried along the axon, a long tube which extends to interact with the dendrites of the next neuron.
