Nervous System Background

The basic unit of the nervous system is the nerve cell or the neuron. In this section, we'll go over the basics of the structure and the electrophysiology of a neuron. We will not go into a detailed discussion of the organization of the whole nervous system especially as it pertains to the human brain, partially because it is a topic that is too large to cover here.

The following topics are available here:

• Anatomy of a Neuron : A neuron is a cell specialized to handle information. It is neurons that sense the environment, communicate the information to other neurons and send commands to muscles and other internal systems of the body. Learn about the component parts of a neuron.



• Electrophysiology of a Neuron : Most of you probably know that animals use electricity and that nerve signals and brain activities are electrical. But when it comes to how in the world animals can generate electricity, people generally don't have a clear idea. Well, here is a brief explanation to help you understand how that works. We will go over the concept of the resting potential and the action potential.
  • The Resting Potential
  • The Action Potential

• Background Information About the Leech
• Background Information About Electrical Equipment