If they communicate by electricity why doesn't the signal get sent to every other nerve nearby?
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In human body and other higher animals two neurons are "connected " through a synapse . There is a microscopic gap between two neurons .A synapse involves 3 parts , 1 synaptic knob , 2 synaptic cleft and 3 a synaptic disc .When a nerve impulse reaches a knob a chemical called a neurotransmitter is released in cleft which initiates impulse in disc of next neuron , thus transmission of impulse from 1 neuron to other is a biochemical method . Lower animals have electrical synapse . .
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First lets talk about the anatomy of a neuron (nerve cell). You start out with the cell body, which has lots of dendrites coming off of it (kind of like a spider's body with the dendrites being legs). Stimulation occurs in the dendrites and this goes to a part of the cell called the axon hillock. Once enough stimulation occurs a signal gets sent from the hillock down a long "thread" called the axon. Think of the hillock as a light switch and the axon as a wire. No electricity travels down the wire before the switch is flipped.
Without getting too technical, the reason why the electricity doesn't go to all the other nerves near by is because you aren't looking at electricity from a wire. Basically there are gates along the axon which open to allow certain negative particles out which causes the inside of the axon to be positively charged (at that location only). This then signals the next set of gates to open, and so on until you reach the end of that particular nerve: called an axon terminal. Here the positive charge signals the release of chemicals from the cell into the surrounding space. These chemicals then bind to the dendrite of the next nerve cell, generating more stimulation and causing the entire process to repeat.
Check out these images here:
Nerve Cell: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~sjjgsca/NerveNeuro…
Axon Terminal/Dendrite: http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/upl…
Without getting too technical, the reason why the electricity doesn't go to all the other nerves near by is because you aren't looking at electricity from a wire. Basically there are gates along the axon which open to allow certain negative particles out which causes the inside of the axon to be positively charged (at that location only). This then signals the next set of gates to open, and so on until you reach the end of that particular nerve: called an axon terminal. Here the positive charge signals the release of chemicals from the cell into the surrounding space. These chemicals then bind to the dendrite of the next nerve cell, generating more stimulation and causing the entire process to repeat.
Check out these images here:
Nerve Cell: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~sjjgsca/NerveNeuro…
Axon Terminal/Dendrite: http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/upl…
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Imagine you have a bunch of extension cords all running over each other connected to different things (like the tv, a radio, etc.) the electricity inside of them doesn't effect the other cords right? This is because the cords have a layer of insulation.
The nerves in your body have the same thing. The insulation for your nerves is called Myelin, and forms a Myelin sheath around your nerve fibers.
Hope this helps!
The nerves in your body have the same thing. The insulation for your nerves is called Myelin, and forms a Myelin sheath around your nerve fibers.
Hope this helps!
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They connect without touching through synapse.
The signal doesnt get sent to every other signal nearby because they have myelin sheaths on them which act as insulators.
for more info ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synapse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myelin
Hope i helped! :D
The signal doesnt get sent to every other signal nearby because they have myelin sheaths on them which act as insulators.
for more info ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synapse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myelin
Hope i helped! :D