What are 3 kinds of neurons?

Answer 1

Types of Neurons

While there are many different kinds of neurons, there are three broad categories based on function:

1. Sensory neurons are sensitive to various non-neural stimuli. There are sensory neurons in the skin, muscles, joints, and organs that indicate pressure, temperature, and pain. There are more specialized neurons in the nose and tongue that are sensitive to the molecular shapes we perceive as tastes and smells. Neurons in the inner ear are sensitive to vibration, and provide us with information about sound. And the rods and cones of the retina are sensitive to light, and allow us to see.

2. Motor neurons are able to stimulate muscle cells throughout the body, including the muscles of the heart, diaphragm, intestines, bladder, and glands.

3. Interneurons are the neurons that provide connections between sensory and motor neurons, as well as between themselves. The neurons of the central nervous system, including the brain, are all interneurons.

Most neurons are collected into "packages" of one sort or another, sometimes visible to the naked eye. A clump of neuron cell bodies, for example, is called a ganglion (plural: ganglia) or a nucleus (plural: nuclei). A fiber made up of many axons is called a nerve. In the brain and spinal cord, areas that are mostly axons are called white matter, and it is possible to differentiate pathways or tracts of these axons. Areas that include large number of cell bodies are called gray matter.