Word: neuronal
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...normal state, a nerve cell is like an electrical relay waiting for a signal to send it into action. When the signal (a pulse of energy from another neuron) arrives, the cell "fires." An electrical disturbance starts at its center and travels outward along all its fibers. When the pulse reaches the end of a fiber and touches a fiber of another cell, it may or may not "fire" that cell, too. This selective action is the basis of the brain's operation...
...brains, do they ever go insane? Indeed they do, says Professor Wiener. Certain forms of insanity in the brain are believed to be caused by circulating memories which have got out of hand. Memory impulses (of worry or fear) go round & round, refusing to be suppressed. They invade other neuron circuits and eventually occupy so much nerve tissue that the brain, absorbed in its worry, can think of nothing else...
...basic unit of the nervous system, said Dr. Hoagland, is the neuron or nerve cell. When neurons are stimulated, a wave of electrical energy passes along their interconnecting fibers. When it reaches the "synapses" where the fibers touch those of other nerve cells, it may pass the impulse along. Or it may not. This "yes-or-no" response of the neurons, Dr. Hoagland believes, is the basis of brain operation. Certain calculating machines work the same way, their vacuum tubes or relays responding or not to the electrical impulses that reach 'them...
Lecture. Introduction to the Finer Anatomy of the Nervous System: the Neuron. Dr. G. H. Parker. Zoological Lecture-room, top floor, University Museum...
Lecture. Introduction to the Finer Anatomy of the Nervous System: the Neuron. Dr. G. H. Parker. Zoological Lecture-room, top floor, University Museum...