ABSTRACT
Introduction Knowing the location and function of the structural com ponents of the nervous system, as presented in Chapter 3 , permits localization of the site o f a lesion.The tempo ral profile o f the major types o f disease, as presented in Chapter 4, assists in identifying the cause o f the disor der. However, the temporal profile that has not been con sidered is the transient, or rapidly reversible, abnormali ty. M any diseases that produce signs or symptoms of brief duration may not produce destructive changes in cells and may occur without demonstrable histologic abnor mality of the involved structures.To understand transient manifestations o f disease, it is necessary to understand the physiology o f the cells o f the nervous system and the mechanism by which they process information. Cells in the nervous system and muscle communicate by elec trical signals. Neurons have the ability to generate, con duct, transmit, and respond to electrical activity. Information is transmitted between cells by neurochemical agents that convey the signals from one cell to the next. Information is integrated by the interaction of electrical activity in sin gle cells and in groups o f cells.
