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The white lipid material that insulates the axon of a neuron is called myelin. In the central nervous system, myelin is created by oligodendrocytes while in the peripheral nervous system the myelin is created by Schwann cells. The purpose of myelin is to speed up action potentials. It's important to know that the myelin does not coat the axon entirely; each sheath of myelin is separated by a gap, called a node of Ranvier. These gaps are responsible for the quick transport of action potentials, due to the fact that the potentials can "jump" from node to node rather than having to travel down the entire length of the axon (this is called saltatory conduction).

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