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What is the function of dendrite?

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Last updated date: 27th Jul 2024
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Answer
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Hint: Neurons are information transmitters. They relay information between various regions of the brain and between the brain and the rest of the nervous system using electrical impulses and chemical signals.

Complete answer:
• The neuron is the brain's fundamental working organ, a specialised cell designed to relay information to other nerve cells, muscle cells, or gland cells.
• Neurons are nervous system cells that relay information to other nerve cells, muscle cells, or gland cells. The majority of neurons have a cell nucleus, an axon, and a dendrite.
• There are three groups of neurons in the spinal cord: visual, motor, and interneurons.
• Sensory neuron (relay signals from send organs to Brian and the spinal cord)
• Motor neuron (convert impulses from the brain and spinal cord to effectors, which are life muscles.)
• Interneurons are a type of neuron that connects two neurons.
• A neuron is made up of three major components: dendrites, an axon, and a cell body or soma, which can be compared to the leaves, roots, and trunk of a tree.
• A neuron's dendrite (tree branch) is where it receives feedback from other cells. Dendrites, like tree branches, branch as they advance towards their ends, and they also have leaf-like structures called spines on them.

Dendrite – The neuron's receiving part. Dendrites receive synaptic inputs from axons, and the number of dendritic inputs determines whether a neuron fires an action potential.

The axon (tree roots) is the neuron's output structure; when one neuron needs to communicate with another, it sends an electrical message called an action potential across the entire axon. The soma (tree trunk) houses the nucleus, the neuron's DNA, and the proteins that are distributed across the axon and dendrites.

Note: Axon – The long, thin structure in which action potentials are generated; the neuron's transmitting component. Following activation, action potentials move down axons to activate neurotransmitter release.
Spine – The tiny protrusions found on dendrites that serve as the postsynaptic contact site for several synapses.