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NEURON COMMUNICATIONS/NEURON TRANSMITTERS [ NERVE CELLS ( THE AMAZING BRAIN ) ]

NEURON COMMUNICATIONS/NEURON TRANSMITTERS [ NERVE CELLS ( THE AMAZING BRAIN ) ] NEURON COMMUNICATIONS Tim Berners-Lee, a creator of the World Wide Web, likens the brain’s complexity to the nearly infinite capacity for Web sites to connect to each other. “A piece of information is really defined only by what it’s related to,” he said….

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NEURONS AT WORK [ CONNECTIONS / ACTION / GROWTH & SUPPORT / PLASTICITY ]

NEURONS AT WORK [ CONNECTIONS / ACTION / GROWTH & SUPPORT / PLASTICITY ] Neurons serve different functions. Motor neurons carry impulses to activate glands and muscles. Sensory neurons send impulses from the skin and other body parts to the central nervous system. Interneurons, residing in the brain and spinal cord, integrate the signals and…

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ANATOMY OF A NEURON [ NERVE CELLS ( THE AMAZING BRAIN ) ]

ANATOMY OF A NEURON [ NERVE CELLS ( THE AMAZING BRAIN ) ] Each neuron has a main cell body. Like all cells, the neuron contains a nucleus and an exterior mem-brane, which sometimes receives electrochemical messages from other neurons. Chains of neurons send messages from the body to the brain: “Here is pain, in…

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NERVE CELLS – THE BRAIN’S WORKFORCE

NERVE CELLS – THE BRAIN’S WORKFORCE THE FUNDAMENTAL units of the brain, too small to see in Willis’s time, are two types of nerve cells. One type, the neuroglia (or glial-“glue”- cells), has the rather pedestrian task of supporting the nervous system. Neuroglia play a role in guiding neurons toward making connec- tions, promoting neuron…

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BIRTH OF NEUROSCIENCE – THE AMAZING BRAIN

BIRTH OF NEUROSCIENCE – THE AMAZING BRAIN Today’s scholars of the human brain and mind owe a great debt to Thomas Willis. Working in England in the middle of the 17th century, he meticulously observed and cataloged the anatomy of the human brain through dissection. Working in a medieval house at Oxford known as Beam…

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BRAIN OR SOUL – KNOWING ITSELF [ THE AMAZING BRAIN ]

BRAIN OR SOUL – KNOWING ITSELF [ THE AMAZING BRAIN ] Descartes saw no physical soul in his tours of the body. Instead, he conceived the soul as noncorporeal and thus above the mechanics that animated all flesh. Operating within the machine but not part of it, the soul oversaw humanity’s consciousness, will, and all…