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Neurons communicate with other cells via synapses, which are specialized connections that commonly use minute amounts of chemical neurotransmitters to pass the electric signal from the presynaptic neuron to the target cell through the synaptic gap. Neurons are the main components of nervous tissue in all animals except sponges and placozoans.
Once the neurons have reached their regional positions, they extend axons and dendrites, which allow them to communicate with other neurons via synapses. Synaptic communication between neurons leads to the establishment of functional neural circuits that mediate sensory and motor processing, and underlie behavior. [11]
Neural coding (or neural representation) is a neuroscience field concerned with characterising the hypothetical relationship between the stimulus and the neuronal responses, and the relationship among the electrical activities of the neurons in the ensemble.
While individual neurons are simple, many of them together in a network can perform complex tasks. There are two main types of neural network. In neuroscience , a biological neural network is a physical structure found in brains and complex nervous systems – a population of nerve cells connected by synapses .
Many neurons migrating along the anterior-posterior axis of the body use existing axon tracts to migrate along in a process called axophilic migration. [18] An example of this mode of migration is in GnRH-expressing neurons, which make a long journey from their birthplace in the nose, through the forebrain, and into the hypothalamus. [19]
Synaptic communication is distinct from an ephaptic coupling, in which communication between neurons occurs via indirect electric fields. An autapse is a chemical or electrical synapse that forms when the axon of one neuron synapses onto dendrites of the same neuron.
As these images hit the back of the retina, these stimuli are converted from varying wavelengths to a series of neural spikes called action potentials. These patterns of action potentials are different for different objects and different colors; we therefore say that the neurons are encoding objects and colors by varying their spike rates or ...
Neurons communicate with one another via synapses and affect the timing of spike trains in the post-synaptic neurons. Depending on the properties of the connection, such as the coupling strength, time delay and whether coupling is excitatory or inhibitory , the spike trains of the interacting neurons may become synchronized . [ 37 ]