Oh, wow, oh, oh, wow, oh, wow, oh, wow.

Oh, wow.

Oh, my. Hello, you're listening to The Science of Everything podcast, episode 28, neuronsurons and Synapses, and I'm your host, James Fodor.

In this episode, we're going to look at the structure and function of the neuron, that is brain cells.

In particular, we're going to look at the different parts of the neuron and how they fit together,

and what their functions are. We'll also look at how action potentials are formed and propagated,

including a look at resting potentials,

the voltage-dependent ion channels and graded potentials,

and how these lead to the generation of action potentials

and the propagation of action potentials along the axon.

And we'll also finish off the episode with a quick look

at synapses and synaptic transmission and a bit of a look at neurotransmitters.

Recommended pre-listing for this episode are mostly episode 10 on the cell. Episode 9 matter and

molecules might also be helpful. Also possibly something like episode 15 on chemical bonding may be relevant in some parts, but mostly just a bit of a background knowledge about the main parts of the cell, which you can find in episode 10. Okay, without further ado, let's get started. So the neuron is one of the key type of cells that makes up the human brain, and the brains of other animals too, and also the nervous system.

There are around 100 billion neurons in the human brain, although sources differ a bit on that, but roughly 100 billion, and each of those has maybe about 1,000 connections to other neurons other neurons or a thousand synaptic connections

as we call them. So there's a heck of a lot of neural connections inside the human brain,

which is what allows for the enormous complexity of conscious thought and language and so

forth. A neuron, which is sometimes also called a neuron, spelled with an E or nerve cell, I'll mostly will refer them as neurons,

is an electrically excitable cell that possesses and, sorry, that processes and transmits electrical information

through both electrical and chemical signaling.

Now, as I mentioned before, there are many, many different types of neurons.

Well, depending on how you count them, I've seen counts into the dozens or even hundreds of them, but they can be categorized in a few main different types or groups, and those are

...