ABSTRACT
It is time for some detail about the key component of the brain and nervous system, the neurone. It has been estimated that there are ten billion nerve cells in the brain, each capable of developing its own electrical charge. Wilder Penfield, the brain surgeon previously mentioned, observed that the brain ‘Vibrates’ with an energy that in health is held in disciplined control. Conduction of nerve signals is facilitated by the shape of the’ neurones which can be simple or complex. From the main cell body sprouts a single axon, essentially a long wire covered with white insulation, the white pulpy matter of the brain mentioned earlier. The axon carries the nerve impulses, not as a continual stream of electricity like water through a pipe, but as a series of impulses like bullets from a machine gun. Almost all, if not all, neurones are, spontaneously active, ‘firing’ (discharging an electrical impulse) as often as ten times a second. Any message they transmit has to be an increase or decrease in this spontaneous base-line rate of discharge.
