Neural Tissue
Question 1: What is a neuron?
Answer:
Nervous tissue contains highly specialized unit cells called nerve cells or neurons.
Question 2: What is the function of dendrites and axons?
Answer:
The dendrites receive impulses and the axon takes impulses away from the cell body.
Question 3: What does a neuron look like?
Answer:
Neurons or nerve cells are a unit of nervous tissue which serves to transmit messages in our body. It consists of a cell body with a nucleus and cytoplasm, from which long thin hair-like parts arise. Usually, each neuron has a single long part called the axon, and many short branched processes(parts) called dendrites.
Question 4: Do neurons carry impulses toward the brain?
Answer:
Sensory neurons carry impulses toward the brain.
Question 5: What is a synapse?
Answer:
The region of the union of the terminal arborization of the axon of one neuron with the dendrites of another neuron is called a synapse.
Question 6: What are CNS and PNS?
Answer:
The Central Nervous System consists of the brain and spinal cord. The Peripheral Nervous System includes all peripheral nerves.
Question 7: What is the function of Cranial nerves?
Answer:
They play a major role in vision, hearing, and movement of muscles.
Neural Tissue
All living organisms are made of cells. A unicellular organism has a single cell in its body, i.e., a single cell performs all basic life activities. However, in multicellular organisms, there are millions of cells. Most of these cells are specialized to carry out only a few functions efficiently. These functions are taken up by a distinct group of cells. Thus, it can be said that there is a division of labor in multicellular organisms.
A tissue is a group of cells that are similar in structure, origin, and function. The term ’tissue’ was given by Bichat. The branch of science dealing with the tissues is called ‘histology’. Mayer introduced the term histology. Malpighi is considered the “founder of histology. Broadly animal tissues are classified into four types: epithelial, connective, muscular, and neural.