How Does 2-Minute Neuroscience: The Neuron Work?

A neuron is like a tiny message runner that helps your brain talk to the rest of your body.

Imagine you have a toy phone, and every time you press a button, it sends a signal all the way to another toy. That’s kind of how a neuron works, it sends messages from one place to another in your body.

A neuron has three main parts:

• The body, which is like the brain of the message runner.
• The dendrites, which are like little ears that listen for messages coming from other neurons.
• The axon, which is like a long arm that carries the message to the next neuron or to your muscles.

When something happens, like you touch something hot, the message travels through the dendrites into the body of the neuron, and then it zooms down the axon like a race car on a track. At the end of the axon, there are tiny bubbles that release a special signal, kind of like throwing a flag to tell the next runner to start moving.

That’s how your brain tells your hand to pull away from something hot, fast and smart!