What is the difference between axons and dendrites?
In the central nervous system, there are about 100 billion neurons and connections or synapses between these neurons can range from several hundreds to 200,000 connections. The three main parts of the neurons are soma or cellular body, axon and dendrites. Although axons and dendrites perform nerve pulses, they differ in terms of structure, composition, function and number. With these differences, axons and dendrites are able to maintain the effective functioning of the nervous system.
Axons and dendrites differ in terms of structure. The term dendrit is derived from the Greek dendron , which means a tree. Microscopically, dendrites have the appearance of Treelike, are strongly branched and have more boutons, terminal buttons or synaptic buttons. These buttons give dendrites a rough appearance. Dendrites branches are located near the cellular body. Axon exmá slope from the cell body to the end of the neuron terminal. Axons lack end buttons and have a radius that remains constant over their entire length, leading to relatively smoothu look.
As far as the composition is concerned, dendrites have ribosomes, but they lack myelin, while the axons have myelin but lack ribosomes. This difference in the composition reflects the difference in the function of axons and dendrites. Dendrites operate when receiving multiple nerve pulses from adjacent cells and axon works in the transmission of nerve pulses from the cell body. The presence of myelin in axons accelerates the transmission of signals. In terms of numbers, there are more dendrites than axons.
branching structure of dendrites leads to a large surface area for connection with other neurons and for receiving multiple inputs from other cells. After processing these synaptic inputs, the cell body, the only output is sent by axon towards another neuron or towards the effector organ. Axon can be as short as 0.0004 inches (10 micrometers), but can reach up to 157.5 inches (4 m) in large animals.
to facilitate the rapid impact lineSU is often accompanied by a Schwann cell that produces a myelin cloak that wings around the axon. From the axon terminal of neuron to dendritus of another neuron, the impulse of synapse, which is about 200 to 300 angstromes. This whole process occurs in all neurons, whether it performs impulses towards the brain or towards peripheral tissues.