eli5 : how do nerve impulses travel ?

313 views

i tried so hard to understand but i couldn’t

In: Biology

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Do you mean within a single nerve cell or between nerve cells? Or both?

Anonymous 0 Comments

Think of a nerve as a cable with a squirt gun and water sensor at the ends. You put 3 of these things down, one after the other. Let’s call these Number 1, Number 2, and Number 3. You splash water on one end of number 1, on it’s water sensor. Number 1 sends a signal down the cable to the squirt gun which squirts water at number 2. Number 2’s water sensor detects water and sends a signal down the cable to it’s squirt gun which shoots Number 3.

Instead of water and water sensors, nerves use neurotransmitters which travel from one end of a nerve to the next nerve.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Nerve impulses travel exactly like doing The Wave at a sporting arena. When the guy next to you stands up, you stand up. Within the cells, there are free-floating atoms and gates which cause them to “step out” of the cell in a wave causing the next gate in the chain to do the same.