What are nerve cells?

Nerve cells are special cells that help your body send messages, just like messengers in a big city.

Imagine your brain is like a busy town hall, and your body is the whole city. When you want to move your hand or feel something on your skin, nerve cells carry the message from one place to another, like tiny postal workers riding bikes through streets made of tubes.

Each nerve cell has long, strappy parts called axons, which act like highways for messages. These messages are like little bubbles that travel along the axon when you want to move or feel something.

Sometimes, nerve cells work together in groups, just like a team of runners passing a baton, each one takes over where the last one left off, making sure the message gets all the way from your brain to your toes (or from your toes back up to your brain).

When you touch something hot, for example, nerve cells send that "hot" message up to your brain so it can tell you to move away, just like a fire alarm telling everyone to run!