Page 147 - Darwin's Dilemma: The Soul
P. 147
Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)
Another extension departing from the neuron is called the
axon, whose job is to carry information to other neurons. This in-
formation assumes the form of an electrical current. The brain con-
tains depots for the storage of neurochemicals, vesicles that release
these chemicals to carry messages to the next cell in the circuit.
Neurons thus carry information along to the next neuron by way
of axons. To put it another way, dendrites take the information for-
warded from another neuron, and axons forward it on to another
neuron. Axons may extend for as long as a meter, or else be just few
tenths of a millimeter.
How many different types of neurons are there in the brain?
That question has not yet been fully answered, though there are es-
85
timated to be around fifty. Despite the differences in their shapes,
sizes, types of connection and neurochemical contents, all neurons
carry information in almost the same manner. They communicate
with one another in an electrochemical “language.” Information
emerges from one neuron and is received by another in the form of
electrical signals produced by charged atoms or ions, particularly
positively charged sodium and potassium ions or negatively
charged chloride ions. Each of the 100 billion neurons establishes
86
connections with between a few thousand and one hundred thou-
sand other neurons. In general terms, an adult brain establishes 100
trillion synapses, or connection points. 87
Crag Hamilton describes:
What is the most complex network yet developed? If you guessed
the wold wide web, guess again. The human brain, with its electro-
chemical matrix of over one hundred billion neurons, makes the
Internet look like a fancy spider’s web. With each neuron linked to
about 50,000 other neurons, that makes for a total of one hundred
trillion connections. 88
Between the space where the axon that transmits the infor-
mation in a neuron contacts another neuron’s dendrite is
145