The Biological Neuron.

A neuron's dendritic tree is connected to a thousand neighbouring neurons. When one of those neurons fire, a positive or negative charge is received by one of the dendrites. The strengths of all the received charges are added together through the processes of spatial and temporal summation. Spatial summation occurs when several weak signals are converted into a single large one, while temporal summation converts a rapid series of weak pulses from one source into one large signal. The aggregate input is then passed to the soma (cell body). The soma and the enclosed nucleus don't play a significant role in the processing of incoming and outgoing data. Their primary function is to perform the continuous maintenance required to keep the neuron functional. The part of the soma that does concern itself with the signal is the axon hillock. If the aggregate input is greater than the axon hillock's threshold value, then the neuron fires, and an output signal is transmitted down the axon. The strength of the output is constant, regardless of whether the input was just above the threshold, or a hundred times as great. The output strength is unaffected by the many divisions in the axon; it reaches each terminal button with the same intensity it had at the axon hillock. This uniformity is critical in an analogue device such as a brain where small errors can snowball, and where error correction is more difficult than in a digital system.

Each terminal button is connected to other neurons across a small gap called a synapse [left]. The physical and neurochemical characteristics of each synapse determines the strength and polarity of the new input signal. This is where the brain is the most flexible, and the most vulnerable. Changing the constitution of various neuro- transmitter chemicals can increase or decrease the amount of stimulation that the firing axon imparts on the neighbouring dendrite. Altering the neurotransmitters can also change whether the stimulation is excitatory or inhibitory. Many drugs such as alcohol and LSD have dramatic effects on the production or destruction of these critical chemicals. The infamous nerve gas sarin can kill because it neutralizes a chemical (acetylcholinesterase) that is normally responsible for the destruction of a neurotransmitter (acetylcholine). This means that once a neuron fires, it keeps on triggering all the neurons in the vicinity. One no longer has control over muscles, and suffocation ensues.

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Next: A model of a neuron.

Last modified: September 21, 1998
By: Neil Fraser (neil@vv.carleton.ca)