Neural Connectivity

During the life span, changes in the brain may be one of the most dramatic processes that underpin the emergence, maturation, and eventual degeneration of various human behaviors. In the mature brain, there are billions of neurons forming the individual elements of the human brain functional system. Not surprisingly, these neurons do not function in isolation but connect with each other to form different levels of functional units. Shortly after neuron production, migration, and differentiation in the earliest phase of life, neurons develop neuronal processes that allow them to communicate with each other, specifically axons to send signals and dendrites to receive signals. In the brain, the cell bodies of neurons are gray in appearance, thus giving rise to the term gray matter. The connections ...