How do neurons fire and where do they go when we think?
In: Biology
Neurons firing is a very complicated process.
Think of neurons like small tubes. Neurons are generally just sitting still and waiting to be «activated», or at «rest», at a negative charge. When the neuron gets a signal to wake up, it opens up a gate that allows for sodiums ions to flood into it, which brings up it’s voltage. When the neuron hits a certain voltage, it opens up tons of gates, and let’s a lot of sodium ions in, causing a huge spike in voltage. This causes an electrical impulse to travel down the connective bridge to another neuron that it’s connected to. Then it sends out lots of potassium to lower it’s voltage back to a resting state and waits for the next round. Neurons basically sends messages down a huge line of other neurons.
How it relates to us thinking is like each neuron carries just a small part of the thought.
Neuron 1: Hungry
Neuron 2: Lunch
Neuron 3: Eggs
And so on until you think and feel like you’re hungry, it’s time for lunch, and you really want some eggs and bacon. This is incredibly simplified, but there are a lot of how this works that we don’t know yet. How neurons work and relate to thoughts, emotions, and consciousness is still a mystery.
Latest Answers