The Structure of a Neuron

The most distinctive feature of neurons is their shape, which

varies enormously from one neuron to another (see Figure 1.3).
Unlike most other body cells, neurons have long branching
extensions. All neurons include a soma (cell body), and most also
have dendrites, an axon, and presynaptic terminals. The tiniest
neurons lack axons, and some lack well-defined dendrites.
Contrast the motor neuron in Figure 1.4 and the sensory neuron

in Figure 1.5.

A motor neuron, with its soma in the spinal cord, receives excitation through its dendrites and
conducts impulses along its axon to a muscle. A sensory neuron is specialized at one end to be highly
sensitive to a particular type of stimulation, such as light, sound, or touch. The sensory neuron shown
in Figure 1.5 conducts touch information from the skin to the spinal cord. Tiny branches lead directly
from the receptors into the axon, and the cell’s soma is located on a little stalk off the main trunk.
Dendrites are branching fibers that get narrower near their ends. (The term dendrite comes from a
Greek root word meaning “tree.” A dendrite branches like a tree.) The dendrite’s surface is lined with
specialized synaptic receptors, at which the dendrite receives information from other neurons.
(Chapter 2 concerns
synapses.) The greater
the surface area of a
dendrite, the more
information it can
receive. Many dendrites
contain dendritic spines,
short outgrowths that
increase the surface area
available for synapses
(see Figure 1.6).
 The cell body, or soma (Greek for “body”; plural: somata), contains the nucleus, ribosomes, and
mitochondria. Most of a neuron’s metabolic work occurs here. Cell bodies of neurons range in
diameter from 0.005 millimeter (mm) to 0.1 mm in mammals and up to a millimeter in certain
invertebrates. In many neurons, the cell body is like the dendrites— covered with synapses on its
surface. The axon is a thin fiber of constant diameter. (The term axon comes from a Greek word
meaning “axis.”) The axon conveys an impulse toward other neurons, an organ, or a muscle. Axons
can be more than a meter in length, as in the case of axons from your spinal cord to your feet. The
length of an axon is enormous in comparison to its width. Many vertebrate axons are covered with an
insulating material called a myelin sheath with interruptions known as nodes of Ranvier (RAHN-vee-
ay). Invertebrate axons do not have myelin sheaths. Although a neuron can have many dendrites, it
can have only one axon, but the axon may have branches. The end of each branch has a swelling,
called a presynaptic terminal, also known as an end bulb or bouton (French for “button”). At that
point the axon releases chemicals that cross through the junction between that neuron and
another cell. Other terms associated with neurons are afferent, efferent, and intrinsic. An afferent
axon brings information into a structure; an efferent axon carries information away from a
structure. Every sensory neuron is an afferent to the rest of the nervous system, and every motor
neuron is an efferent from the nervous system. Within the nervous system, a given neuron is an
efferent from one structure and an afferent to another (see Figure 1.7). You can remember that
efferent starts with e as in exit; afferent starts with a as in admit. If a cell’s dendrites and axon are
entirely contained within a single structure, the cell is an interneuron or intrinsic neuron of that
structure. For example, an intrinsic neuron of the thalamus has its axon and all its dendrites within
the thalamus.

Glia
Glia (or neuroglia), the other components of the nervous system, perform many functions (see Figure
1.9). The term glia, derived from a Greek word meaning “glue,” reflects early investigators’ idea that
glia were like glue that held the neurons together. Although that concept is obsolete, the term

remains. Glia outnumber neurons in the cerebral

cortex, but neurons outnumber glia in several
other brain areas, especially the cerebellum (Herculano-Houzel et al., 2015; Khakh & Sofroniew,
2015). Overall, the numbers are almost equal. The brain has several types of glia. The star-shaped
astrocytes wrap around the synapses of functionally related axons, as shown in Figure 1.10.

By surrounding a connection between neurons, an astrocyte shields it from chemicals circulating in

the surround (Nedergaard & Verkhatsky, 2012). Also, by taking up the ions and transmitters released
by axons and then releasing them back, an astrocyte helps synchronize closely related neurons,
enabling their axons to send messages in waves (Martín, Bajo-Grañeras, Moratalla, Perea, & Araque,
2015). Astrocytes are therefore important for generating rhythms, such as your rhythm of breathing
(Morquette et al., 2015). Astrocytes dilate the blood vessels to bring more nutrients into brain areas
that have heightened activity (Filosa et al., 2006; Takano et al., 2006). A possible role in information
processing is also likely but less certain. According to a popular hypothesis known as the tripartite
synapse, the tip of an axon releases chemicals that cause the neighboring astrocyte to release
chemicals of its own, thus magnifying or modifying the message to the next neuron (Ben Achour &
Pascual, 2012). This process is a possible contributor to learning and memory (De Pitta, Brunel, &
Volterra, 2016). In some brain areas, astrocytes also respond to hormones and thereby influence
neurons (Kim et al., 2014). In short, astrocytes are active partners of neurons in many ways. Tiny cells
called microglia act as part of the immune system, removing viruses and fungi from the brain. They
proliferate after brain damage, removing dead or damaged neurons (Brown & Neher, 2014). They also
contribute to learning by removing the weakest synapses (Zhan et al., 2014). Oligodendrocytes (OL-i-
go-DEN-druh-sites) in the brain and spinal cord and Schwann cells in the periphery of the body build
the myelin sheaths that surround and insulate certain vertebrate axons. They also supply an axon
with nutrients necessary for proper functioning (Y. Lee et al., 2012). Radial glia guide the migration of
neurons and their axons and dendrites during embryonic development. When embryological
development finishes, most radial glia differentiate into neurons, and a smaller number differentiate
into astrocytes and oligodendrocytes (Pinto & Götz, 2007).

The Blood–Brain Barrier

Although the brain, like any other organ, needs to receive nutrients from the blood, many chemicals
cannot cross from the blood to the brain (Hagenbuch, Gao, & Meier, 2002). The mechanism that
excludes most chemicals from the vertebrate brain is known as the blood–brain barrier. Before we
examine how it works, let’s consider why we need it.

Why We Need a Blood–Brain Barrier

When a virus invades a cell, mechanisms within the cell extrude virus particles through the
membrane so that the immune system can find them. When the immune system cells discover a
virus, they kill it and the cell that contains it. In effect, a cell exposing a virus through its membrane
says, “Look, immune system, I’m infected with this virus. Kill me and save the others.” This plan works
fine if the virus-infected cell is, for example, a skin cell or a blood cell, which the body replaces easily.
However, with few exceptions, the vertebrate brain
does not replace damaged neurons. If you had to
sacrifice brain cells whenever you had a viral
infection, you would not do well! To minimize the
risk of irreparable brain damage, the body lines the
brain’s blood vessels with tightly packed cells that
keep out most viruses, bacteria, and harmful
chemicals. However, certain viruses do cross the
blood–brain barrier (Kristensson, 2011). What
happens then? When the rabies virus evades the
blood–brain barrier, it infects the brain and leads to
death. The spirochete responsible for syphilis also
penetrates the blood–brain barrier, producing long-
lasting and potentially fatal consequences. The
microglia are more effective against several other
viruses that enter the brain, mounting an
inflammatory response that fights the virus without
killing the neuron (Ousman & Kubes, 2012).
However, this response may control the virus
without eliminating it. When the chicken pox virus
enters spinal cord cells, virus particles remain there
long after they have been exterminated from the
rest of the body. The virus may emerge from the
spinal cord decades later, causing a painful
condition called shingles. Similarly, the virus
responsible for genital herpes hides in the nervous system, producing little harm there but
periodically emerging to cause new genital infection.

How the Blood–Brain Barrier Works

The blood–brain barrier (see Figure 1.11) depends on the endothelial cells that form the walls of the
capillaries (Bundgaard, 1986; Rapoport & Robinson, 1986). Outside the brain, such cells are separated
by small gaps, but in the brain, they are joined so tightly that they block viruses, bacteria, and other
harmful chemicals from passage. “If the blood–brain barrier is such a good defense,” you might ask,
“why don’t we have similar walls around all our other organs?” The answer is that the barrier keeps
out useful chemicals as well as harmful ones. Those useful chemicals include all fuels and amino
acids, the building blocks for proteins. For these chemicals to cross the blood–brain barrier, the brain
needs special mechanisms not found in the rest of the body. No special mechanism is required for
small, uncharged molecules such as oxygen and carbon dioxide that cross through cell walls freely.
Also, molecules that dissolve in the fats of the membrane cross easily. Examples include vitamins A
and D and all the drugs that affect the brain—from antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs to
illegal drugs such as heroin. How fast a drug takes effect depends largely on how readily it dissolves in
fats and therefore crosses the blood– brain barrier. Water crosses through special protein channels
in the wall of the endothelial cells (Amiry-Moghaddam &Ottersen, 2003). For certain other
chemicals, the brain uses active transport, a protein-mediated process that expends energy to
pump chemicals from the blood into the brain. Chemicals that are actively transported into the brain
include glucose (the brain’s main fuel), amino acids (the building blocks of proteins), purines, choline,
a few vitamins, and iron (Abbott, Rönnback, & Hansson, 2006; Jones & Shusta, 2007). Insulin and
probably certain other hormones also cross the blood–brain barrier, at least in small amounts,
although the mechanism is not yet known (Gray, Meijer, & Barrett, 2014; McNay, 2014). The blood–
brain barrier is essential to health. In people with Alzheimer’s disease or similar conditions, the
endothelial cells lining the brain’s blood vessels shrink, and harmful chemicals enter the brain
(Zipser et al., 2007). However, the barrier poses a difficulty for treating brain cancers, because
nearly all the drugs used for chemotherapy fail to cross the blood–brain barrier.