Graded Potential Of Neurons In The Human Body

Neurons in the human body are mostly comprised of a cell body, an axon, dendrites and axon terminals. The dendrites of the neuron, also known as “little trees”, is where information is gathered and sent to the dendritic tree and the cell body. The dendrites are structures that are highly branched resembling a tree—hence the name—and conduct impulses towards the cell body. The cell body is similar to all types of cells in which they contain organelles such as lysosomes, mitochondria, Golgi complexes, and a rough endoplasmic reticulum. When the information is received into the dendritic tree and the cell body, the information is then transmitted down into the axon and the axon terminals. The axon is a long, thin, cylindrical shaped tube that

One of the electrical signals is called a graded potential and the second electrical signal that sent and received is called the action potential. The graded potential is used only for short-distance as opposed to the action potential which allows for long distance communication within the body. Graded potentials are in short brought by an external stimuli which can occur in a sensory neuron or by neurotransmitters that were released by the presynaptic neuron. An action potential can only occur from the depolarization to threshold that is created by the graded potentials. Depolarization occurs when the intracellular charge becomes more positive. The threshold of neurons are held at -55 mV. During graded potentials, the neurotransmitters are released from the presynaptic terminal and binds onto a chemically gated channels on the postsynaptic neuron which causes the gate channels to open causing leakage to happen which, in turn, permits ions to flow out of the cell. When the charge meets the threshold, the neuron is then excited enough to cause an action