Page 28 - The Miracle of Electricity in the Body

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NEURONS:
NEURONS:

CELLS THAT PRODUCE
CELLS THAT PRODUCE

ELECTRICAL CURRENT
ELECTRICAL CURRENT

N erves interpenetrating our bodies consist of hundreds, and
sometimes, thousands of nerve cells called “neurons.” An
average neuron is 10 microns wide. (One micron is equal to
1/1000 millimeter, which equals to 0.000039 of an inch.) Were we able to
line up the 100 billion neurons in a human brain, their line would extend
for a full 1000 kilometers (620 miles). But this line would be only 10 mi-
crons wide, invisible to the naked eye. You can envisage the minute size
of neurons with the following comparison: 50 neurons would fit into a
period at the end of this sentence and 30,000 on the head of a pin. 6
5
Neurons have been created to carry the electrical impulses through-
out the body. The task of most neurons is to receive signals from neigh-
boring neurons and then to transmit these on to another adjacent neuron
or to the ultimate target cell. Neurons communicate with one another,
carrying out thousands of these processes every second.
We can compare a neuron to an electrical switch that goes on or off,
depending on circumstances. On its own, a neuron constitutes only a
very small part of the interconnected circuits of the nervous system. But
in the absence of these tiny electrical circuits, life is impossible. Professor
Werner Gitt of the German Federal Institute of Physics and Technology
describes this giant complex squeezed into this small area: