STD 10 CHAP 7 CONTROL AND COORDINATION

SCRIPT 3 – The Neuron

1. Hello students
2. Have you ever seen Human Brain from inside?
[3.] No! Do not bother. We will Take you through the journey of human brain. We will tell you about it.

1. Brain from inside

[1.] From inside brain is made up of the neurons also called as nerve cells. You know students’ brain is one of
the most important organ of the whole nervous system. And we also know that organ is made up of tissues
and tissues are made up of cells.
[2.] Thus brain as an organ is made up of brain tissues which in turn are made up of includescells neurons or
nerve cells also known as neurons. the Brain tissues are made up of other supporting cells also called and
neuroglia or glial cells also called neuroglia.
1.[3.] Let us see their structure and function one by one.
1a. Neuron or nerve cell:
[4.] A neuron or nerve cell is the structural and functional unit of the brain. Brain is made up of millions of
neurons, hence it is called building block or structural unit also (show brain and one neuron as building
block). Also students it Neurons not only builds brain but all that the functions which brain does are actually
done by neurons, hence they are called functional unit (show animation within the brain showing neurons
are flowing in it). e.g. when we say brain receives signals but actually it is the neurons inside the brain who
does itthe job of receiving the signals, so they are fundamental to the functional units of our brain.
2.[5.] It will be surprising for you to know that Neuron is the longest cell of the human body with a length of over
100µm.
[6.] These nerve cells are highly specialised to receive and transmit different kinds of stimuli. Stimuli as you know
is nothing else thebut plural of the word stimulus which here means an event in the environment which
causes response from the living organism to respond. E.g. when you see a cake and move your hand to pick
it up. In this case, Cake is stimulus while your hand movement is response. Similarly when you see a movie
and cry or laugh, movie is the stimulus and your crying or laughing emotions is the are response.
3.[7.] These stimuli are carried by neurons in the form of electrical impulses or signals from one part of the body
to the brain or spinal cord and from here to another part of body.
1b. Neuroglia:
[8.] Brain as we told you is an organ and is made up of tissues. And tissues are is made up of different types of
cells.
[9.] In brain apart from neurons or nerve cells there are other cells called as Neuroglia or Glial cells or Neuroglia..
[10.] Glial cellsThey do not carry electrical signals just like neurons do which also means that as they are non-
exciting.
4. So then what do they do in the brain? Actually they are supporting cells to the neurons.
[11.] They provide nourishment and protection to the neurons. For example Schwann cells, a type of glial cells,
forms myelin sheath around axon of the neuron.

2. Structure of Neuron
Till now we have seen what are nerve cells and glial cells doabout brain tissue, now let us
see their structure. of cell that makes up brain i.e. neuron.
A neuron typically consists of three basic parts: Cyton, Axon and many Dendronss and
Axon.
2a. Cyton:
[1.] Cyton is also called perikaryon (peri means to surround and karyon means nucleus)
that is arearegion of cell that is surrounding nucleus is called Cyton.
[2.] It has a nucleus with abundant plasma cytoplasm called neuroplasm the way we call
plasma in a cell as cytoplasm. Students both are same but just that it is present in
Cyton or neuron it is named as neuroplasm.
 1.[3.] The cytoplasm has many granules called Nissl’s granules which are nothing but proteins.
[4.] Just like other cells, Cyton too has mitochondria, ribosomes, lysosomes, and endoplasmic reticulum are
also present in Cyton.
[5.] Neurons are special cell as they do not have the ability to divide like other cells. So once your brain cells get
damaged or if they die they can never grow back. That is why when we age, our the neuronscells which die
does not get replaced which results and we have in memory loss.

2b. Dendron:
[1.] Students have you seen a human who gets electric shock? Yes you must have seen,
at least in the cartoons, at least. Look at look at the hairss.
1.[2.] Something similar we see on the head of a neuron also.
[3.] These are the numerous branched processes that come out from the surface of the
cell body. These processes are called as dendrons. Dendrons further divide into
smaller branches called dendrites.
[4.] DendritesThey transfer receives the electrical impulses from sense organs like skin,
eves, nose etc. further transfer towards the Cyton.
[5.] The branched projections of dendrons dendrites increases the surface area for receiving the signals from
other neurons and hence increasing the over- all brain functioning.
2c. Axon:
1. Have you seen the tail of a lizard? Yes of course. In fact, do you know our neuron also has something which
looks like tail? It is nothing but Axon.
2. There is only one axon in a neuron, which is elongated, slender projection coming out from the cyton.
3. The end of axon has many fine branches called as axon terminals, which have knob like swellings at its end
called as synaptic knob.
4. Axon carries electrical impulses from one neuron to the other neuron.
[5.] Some axons may be covered by a protective sheath called myelin sheath. Myelin
sheath acts as an insulator and ensures rapid transmission of the nerve
impulses. If myelin sheath is not there, the transmission becomes very slow.
5.[6.] Myelin sheath is not continuous but absent at regular intervals. These places
where myelin is absent are called Nodes of Ranvier. The region between the
nodes is called as internode.

3. Types of Neurons
We have seen the function and structure of the Neurons. Let us see various types of Neurons. The neurons
are classified based on their structure and functions.
3a. neurons can either have only one axon or dendron, or it can have both or
sometimes only one axon but many dendrons. Based on this structure, the
neurons are of 3 types:
(i) Unipolar neurons: The Cyton gives rise to, only one projection axon or
dendron. This type of Neuron has either Axon or Dendron. Whichever part
exists (axon or Dendron) carries out the functionality of both the partsIt acts as
both axon and dendron. . This common functioning happens only in early stages of
Unipolar neurons are found in early embryos but not in at adult adultstage
Dendron work as Dendron and Axon works as Axon. .
(ii) Bipolar neurons: This type of Neuron has both Axon as well as DendronThe cyton gives rise
to two projections. One is axon while another is dendron. Bipolar neurons found in retina of eye and olfactory
epithelium (the lining in the nasal chambers)
(iii) Multipolar neurons: This type of Neurons has The cyton consists of multiple dendrons and single axon.
Multipolar neuron are found in cerebral cortex of brain.

3b. We know students that neurons transfers electrical impulses or signals. On the basis of its function i.e. where
they carry signals, neurons are categorised as:-
 (i) Sensory or afferent neurons: They carry electrical impulses
from the sense organs to the brain or spinal cord. Suppose you
incidentally touch a hot plate. This information from your skin is
taken to brain by these sensory neurons. As they take signals
from sense organss they are called sensory neurons. Most of the
sensory neurons are unipolar in structure and that too, i.e. they
have only dendrons which always receive signals.
(ii) Motor or efferent neurons: They carry impulses from the
brain or spinal cord to effector organ such as the muscles or the
glands. When you pull your hand back, after touching hot plate,
this message is brought from the brain to the muscles by motor
neurons. Most of motor neurons are multipolar as these motor
neurons perform both the functionality of receiving and
transmitting the signals ie they use Dendron to receive signals from the brain they have multiple dendrons and
also and use axon to give signals to the muscles for this they have axon.

(iii) Inter neurons: They are present in between sensory and motor neurons. Sometimes they are also called as
mixed neurons or relay neurons as they conduct signals between sensory and motor neurons. Most of the
interneurons are also bipolar.
Neurons
Bipolar
Summary:
[1.] So students what we have learnt what is neuron? What is its We learnt about their structure and functions?
[2.] A neuron is single cell having three parts: a Cyton or cell body from which dendron and axon come out as
projections. A dendriteron is where a neuron receives input from other cells while the axon is the output
structure transmits of the neuron the electrical signals to other neuron when a neuron wants to talk to another
neuron.
[3.] In the next video we will see how electrical signals are transmitted from one neuron to another i.e how do
neurons talk communicate with each other.

Many Dendrons

Cyton or cell body

Single Axon
i.