By: Garrett Carpenter

•Neurons are defined as brain cells that manifest all properties of the mind.

•Neurons send and receive information.

•Neurons come in different shapes and sizes.

Neurons Introduction

•The study of neurons can be classified as ne plus ultra or the quantum mechanics of biology.

•Neurons conduct distinct signals such as electro-chemical pulses.

•These are known as action potentials or “spikes.”

•Neurons are like the core components of the nervous system which is the brain, spinal cord, and the peripheral Ganglia.

•A ganglion is a biological mass of tissue and is usually a mass of nerve cell bodies. •There are a number of specialized types of neurons. One example is sensory neurons, which respond to touch, sound, and light and numerous other stimuli affecting cells of the sensory organs that then send signals to the spinal cord and brain.

• Motor neurons receive signals from the brain and spinal cord, and in turn, cause muscle contractions and affect glands.

• Interneuron's connect neurons to other neurons within the same region of the brain or spinal cord.

•Well, in anatomy, ganglions are biological tissue masses, usually a mass of nerve cell bodies.

•Also, cells found in ganglions are called ganglion cells.

The basal ganglia are a group of nuclei in the brains of vertebrates, situated at the base of the forebrain that are connected with the cerebral cortex, thalamus and other areas.

The basal ganglia are associated with a variety of functions, including motor control and learning. Experimental studies show that the basal ganglia exert an inhibitory influence on a number of motor systems, and that a release of this inhibition permits a motor system to become active.

In some dinosaurs, ganglions on the pelvis got so big in relativity to their brain that it was sometimes called the second brain.

• The word hippocampus comes from the Greek word “hippo”, meaning horse.

• Campus, the other Greek word, means “sea monster”.

• The hippocampus plays an important role in long-term memory and spatial navigation.

•Closely related to the cerebral cortex.

•A paired structure with the two equal sides on both the left and right sides of the brain.

•Located inside the medial temporal lobe beneath the cortical surface.

•It’s curved shape reminded early anatomists of the horns of a ram or a seahorse.

•The name was given to this part of the brain by a sixteenth century anatomists Julius Caesar Aranzi .

• When you have Alzheimer's disease, your hippocampus is one of the first components of the brain affected.

• Memory loss and disorientation are among the first symptoms.

• It’s also responsible for emotion and learning.

In rodents, the hippocampus has been studied extensively as part of the brain system responsible for spatial memory and navigation. Many neurons in the rat and mouse hippocampus respond as place cells: that is, they fire bursts of action potentials when the animal passes through a specific part of its environment.

Hippocampal place cells interact extensively with head direction cells, whose activity acts as an inertial compass, and with grid cells in the neighboring entorhinal cortex.

In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that permits a neuron to pass an electrical charge or chemical signal to another cell.

Essential to neuronal function: neurons are specialized cells which pass signals to individual target cells, and synapses are the means by which they do so.

The word synapse comes from synaptein.

Sir Charles Scott Sherrington and colleagues created the word from the Greek “Syn” meaning together, and “Haptein” meaning to clasp.

A neurologist is a physician who specializes in neurology (noo-rol-uh-jee) , and is trained to investigate, or diagnose and treat neurological disorders. Pediatric neurologists treat neurological disease in children.

Estimated pay: $178,000/year with the higher end of the range shooting up to $345,000/year.

Did you know, the two cerebral hemispheres account for 85% of the brains weight. The billions of neurons in the two hemispheres are connected by thick bundles of nerve fibers.

SUMMARY The Hippocampus and Neurons are parts of the brain

that fascinate me. This is an amazing organ in which electricity (synapses) coupled with this organ’s ability to control every function in the human body make this organ a never-ending source of research. I narrowed this project to the hippocampus and neurons. There were so many interesting things that I learned about while doing this project. For example the hippocampus is the site where long-term memories are located. Neurons are the electrical signals, which carry out movements in the body. Finally, the hippocampus is closely associated with the cerebral cortex. I hope to one day go to medical school and become a neurosurgeon. I feel that this project has given me an advanced look at what I hope will be a rewarding career path.

http://gcarp1217akasnickers.glogster.com/glog-9117/

http://www.nutramed.com/brain/neurons.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocampus http://www.psycheducation.org/emotion/

hippocampus.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuron http://www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers/

Publications/Unraveling/Part1/inside.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganglion

?