{"id":8552,"date":"2019-05-22T16:08:56","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/neuron\/"},"modified":"2019-05-22T16:08:56","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T16:08:56","slug":"neuron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/neuron\/","title":{"rendered":"Neuron"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A nerve cell, consisting of cell body or soma and processes, that collects incoming or afferent information (via the dendrites), and transports outgoing or efferent information (via the axon). &nbsp;Thehuman brain has some 100 billion neurons in many different sizes and shapesdepending on their respective functions, with the smallest neurons having cellbodies just 4 microns wide (1 micron = 1000th of a millimeter).&nbsp; Despite such variability, neurons can beclassified into one of three major types: motoneuron, sensory neuron andinterneuron. &nbsp;Typically, neurons have 1,000 to 10,000 synapses and axons that can vary in length from 3 micrometers to more than meter&nbsp;(thus,each neuron can communicate with 1-10,000 other neurons, muscle cells, glandsetc.). &nbsp;Often neuron is confused with nerve, the latter having no cell body and which is made up of bundles of axons. &nbsp;The anatomist <a href=\"http:\/\/neuroportraits.eu\/portrait\/heinrich-wilhelm-gottfried-von-waldeyer\" class=\"cc-route-enabled\" data-editable-link=\"http:\/\/neuroportraits.eu\/portrait\/heinrich-wilhelm-gottfried-von-waldeyer&amp;target=_self\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried Waldeyer-Hartz<\/a> (1836-1921) first used the term &#8216;neuron&#8217; in about 1891.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>See <a href=\"astrocyte\">Astrocyte<\/a>, <a href=\"axon\">Axon<\/a>, <a href=\"brain_-or_encephalon-\">Brain (or encephalon)<\/a>, <a href=\"cell_assemblies\">Cell assemblies<\/a>, <a href=\"cell_theory\">Cell theory<\/a>, Centrifugal\/centripetal, <a href=\"cerebral_cortex_-or_pallium-\">Cerebral cortex (or pallium)<\/a>, <a href=\"dendrite\">Dendrite<\/a>, <a href=\"dorsal_root_ganglia_-drg-\">Dorsal root ganglia (DRG)<\/a>, <a href=\"human_connectome_project_-hcp-\">Human Connectome Project (HCP)<\/a>, <a href=\"interneurons\">Interneurons<\/a>, <a href=\"mecp2_gene\">MECP2 gene<\/a>, <a href=\"mirror_neurons\">Mirror neurons<\/a>, <a href=\"monosynaptic_and_polysynaptic_reflexes\">Monosynaptic and polysynaptic reflexes<\/a>, <a href=\"neuroblasts\">Neuroblasts<\/a>, <a href=\"neuron_doctrine\">Neuron doctrine<\/a>, <a href=\"neuroscience\">Neuroscience<\/a>, <a href=\"nissl_substance\">Nissl substance<\/a>, <a href=\"neurite\">Neurite<\/a>, <a href=\"nodes_of_ranvier\">Nodes of Ranvier<\/a>, <a href=\"processing_units\">Processing units<\/a>, <a href=\"receptive_field\">Receptive field<\/a>, <a href=\"synapse\">Synapse<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A nerve cell, consisting of cell body or soma and processes, that collects incoming or afferent information (via the dendrites), and transports outgoing or efferent information (via the axon). &nbsp;Thehuman brain has some 100 billion neurons in many different sizes and shapesdepending on their respective functions, with the smallest neurons having cellbodies just 4 microns &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/neuron\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Neuron&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-8552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-glossary","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/fas\/psych\/glossary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}