Education Blog Neuroscience Nervous System Pictures 1 of 26

Gunther von Hagens' often-controversial "Body Worlds and the Mirror of Time" exhibition shows us just how many nerves cover the face and head of a human. The exhibit demonstrates the various systems and functions of the human body. And guess what? The brain and nervous system likely are behind every one of them.Image Credit: Samir Hussein/Getty Images

Your face and head have plenty of nerves, but nerves throughout your body, along with your brain and spinal cord, make up your nervous system. Without a nervous system, you wouldn't be able to see this image, read the caption or move your fingers to get to the next image, which shows the cells that receive all of these "nervous" impulses.Image Credit: Courtesy of HowStuffWorks.com

Neurons, or nerve cells, both send and receive impulses. There are hundreds of billions of these messenger cells in every human brain, and many of them specialize in one type of message or another.

For example, sensory neurons send messages about light or heat. But neurons and the brain do much more than help us pull our hand off a hot burner.Image Credit: HowStuffWorks.com

There are no computers that can match the human brain, even if they can beat us at chess or game shows from time to time. The brain is a complex organ, one that neuroscientists continue to study so they can better help people whose brains malfunction because of trauma or disease. For example, deep brain stimulation can electronically stimulate certain neurons to treat Parkinson's disease.Image Credit: Don Farrall/Photodisc/Getty Images

Neurons are structured a little differently, depending on their functions. But each neuron has a cell body, dendrites, an axon and axon terminals. A myelin sheath insulates the neuron from its electrical activity. Next up -- the tiny neurons in the eye that help you see.Image Credit: Courtesy of HowStuffWorks.com

Rod cells, or photoreceptors, are in the eye's retina. These are magnified x600 and tinted with a scanning electron micrograph. Rod cells are sort of like "specialist neurons," which have developed the features needed to turn light energy into neuronal signals. They help you see images like the next brain model.Image Credit: Ron Boardman/Riser/Getty Images

The brain is more than a lump at the top of your spinal cord. It's spongy and fatty, and weighs an average of 3 pounds (1,361 grams). Still, it's the most complex living structure man has discovered in the universe. Yet the brain doesn't work alone.Image Credit: 3D4Medical.com/Getty Images

The spinal cord connects the brain and peripheral nervous system to ensure that signals travel back and forth between all of the nerves in the nervous system. If the connection the spinal cord provides is cut off, communications -- and many functions -- halt. There are about 250,000 spinal cord injuries a year in the U.S.Image Credit: Courtesy of HowStuffWorks.com

Nerves have structural and chemical connections. This microscopic view of a nerve split open reveals its vesicles with chemicals that pass messages. Scientists are beginning to understand the role chemicals play in the nervous system and the actions of drugs on these chemicals. Image Credit: NIH

Nerves are invisibly thin fibers, some short and some long. The longest nerve in the human body is the sciatic nerve, which runs from the spinal cord through the buttock and hip and down the back of the leg. When it's irritated by a disk, it can cause pain along any part of its path. How do you know it hurts? Just ask a neuron.Image Credit: NIH

It takes neurons to send the electrical impulses from the site of pain or injury to your brain, where the brain processes the information. Small fibers send the signals to the spinal cord. The signals move to the brain's neurons next. This illustration shows a 52-second simulation of neurons in the brain signaling each other.Image Credit: NIH

This image shows an actual pyramidal neuron under high power magnification. The dendritic spines, which are easily observed, help transmit electrical signals to the neuron's cell body. Large neurons can receive up to 100,000 synapses via these sites.Image Credit: UCLA Histology

Synaptic transmission helps a neuron communicate with other neurons, such as a muscle cell, at a synapse. The synapse is the contact point at which neurons communicate with one another. Image Credit: NIH

The spinal cord is a primary organ of the nervous system. This high-powered magnification of the central canal of the spinal cord shows glial cells (non-neuronal cells that form myelin, and support and protect the brain's neurons) and capillaries in the surrounding neuropil. Image Credit: UCLA Histology

Injuries to the spinal cord can be devastating and result in permanent paralysis, so researchers are studying ways to improve treatments. Here, undergraduate student Dave Wharton works with spinal cord samples at the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at the University of California Irvine. Scientists there have established human embryonic stem cell colonies, without destroying embryos, in the hope of treating spinal cord injuries. Image Credit: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images

Myelin forms a layer (or sheath) around the axon of a neuron. Its main purpose is to speed up the impulses along myelinated fibers. This cross-section of a peripheral nerve bundle shows black-stained myelin sheaths encasing axons, which are surrounded by the endoneurium. Note the vein and connective tissue in the upper right corner of this image. Next, a close-up of the cells that form myelin.Image Credit: UCLA Histology

Every working cell needs a support system, and glial cells have neurons' backs. This high-powered magnification of a ganglion cell shows the central nucleus of a sensory cell body, and its obvious nucleolus. The ganglion cell is surrounded by the glial cells that form protective myelin. Image Credit: UCLA Histology

Neurons don't just sit around waiting for a neighboring neuron to call them up with a connection, or ask to be their "friend." Immature neurons migrate, and some neurons die. Studying why and how neurons die is helping scientists better understand diseases such as Alzheimer's.Image Credit: iStockphoto.com/Thinkstock

Motor neurons are connected to voluntary muscle fibers and transfer signals from the brain to muscle fiber, causing muscles to contract. Motor neurons have fixed chemical messages, or neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are the "first messengers." Next up, how your morning cup of joe sends a few messages of its own.Image Credit: Kiyoshi Takahase Segundo/iStockphoto

Caffeine wakes you up by fooling adenosine receptors. Adenosine is one of the chemicals in the "second messenger" system. Adenosine slows down nerve cell activity along neural pathways like these, but caffeine (which binds to the same receptors) speeds activity up. Image Credit: iStockphoto/ChristianAnthony

Imagine your neurons really speeding up, perhaps during sexual arousal. Sex hormones also are messengers, chemicals that affect neurons, cells and other functions of the brain, including emotion. Next up, the area of the brain that elicits emotional responses.Image Credit: 3D4Medical.com/Getty Images

The limbic system includes structures such as the amygdala, hippocampus, septum and basal ganglia. Impulses travel to the limbic system to elicit emotional responses. Damage to this part of the brain can cause many problems, including neurological amnesia. Next up, a neurological condition that affects young children.Image Credit: 3D Clinic/Getty Images

The brain of a child with autism might have irregularities in structure and imbalanced neurotransmitters. These irregularities throw off the neurons' signal processing. Researchers now believe that defects in some of the molecules that help synapses mature once they're formed might make some people more susceptible to autism spectrum disorders. Next up, a magnified view of a different disease's effects on the eye. Image Credit: Courtesy of HowStuffWorks.com

Some children have juvenile, or Type 1, diabetes, which is inherited. Most adults have Type 2, which is acquired. In a complex circle of the brain/disease connection, lack of sleep is one of the risk factors for diabetes. Of course, diet and other lifestyle behaviors matter more. Having diabetes also leads to risk of other diseases, such as stroke, a brain attack. This image shows magnified views of a healthy eye on the left and a diabetic one on the right. Image Credit: UHB Trust/Stone/Getty Images

Every animal has a brain, but the human brain is unique. It gives us the power to think, plan, speak and imagine. And some of the brightest brains are using these skills to learn more to help develop special therapies for the more than 1,000 disorders of the brain and nervous system. Now that you're a nervous system pro, check out our neurology pictures!Image Credit: Courtesy of HowStuffWorks.com More Curiosity Galleries

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