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What does a neuron do?
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A neuron is like a relay switch - it receives signals from other neurons and depending on the nature of the signals, the neuron may then 'fire' a signal of its own…, stay silent, or become inhibited. This is like binary code - i.e.,"on" and "off" states. A neuron can oscillate between these states in a variety of frequencies. So the range of computations that even a single neuron can perform is impressive. Now, consider that this sort of thing is happening billions of times every second all throughout the nervous system and you can intuitively grasp just how complex the patterns of signals would become. In fact, somewhere in those patterns is what we would call our 'mind' and our 'intelligence' and so on. And this is all because of a large collection of neurons (~100 billion at birth) relaying signals to each other through a multitude of pathways (trillions).. ( Full Answer )