Neuron

Neuron is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Cell Press, and imprint of Elsevier. It was established in 1988, and covers neuroscience and related biological processes. The current Editor in Chief is Mariela Zirlinger. A past Editor in Chief was Katja Brose.

A useful analogy is to think of a neuron as a tree. A neuron has three main parts: dendrites, and a cell body or soma (see image below), which can be represented as the branches, roots and trunk of a tree, respectively. A dendrite (tree branch) is where a neuron receives input from other cells. Dendrites branch as they move towards their tips, just like tree branches do, and they even have leaf-like structures on them called spines.

The axon (tree roots) is the output structure of the neuron; when a neuron wants to talk to another neuron, it sends an electrical message called an action potential throughout the entire axon. The soma (tree trunk) is where the nucleus lies, where the neuron’s DNA is housed, and where proteins are made to be transported throughout the axon and dendrites.