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Q7. a) Discuss the role of neurons in the process of communication.

ANS- The central nervous system [CNS] is composed entirely of two kinds of specialized cells: neurons and glia. Hence, every information processing system in the CNS is composed of neurons and glia; so too are the networks that compose the systems (and the maps). Clearly, without these two types of cells, the CNS would not be able to do what it does (which is everything having to do with our minds and how we move our bodies). But what do neurons and glia themselves do? What are their functions?

Neurons are the basic information processing structures in the CNS. Everything occurring above the level of neurons qualifies as information processing too. But nothing below the level of neurons does. We shall ignore that this view, called the neuron doctrine, is somewhat controversial. What isn't controversial is that the function of a neuron is to receive INPUT "information" from other neurons, to process that information, then to send "information" as OUTPUT to other neurons. (Synapsesare connections between neurons through which "information" flows from one neuron to another.) Hence, neurons process all of the "information" that flows within, to, or out of the CNS. All of it! All of the motor information through which we are able to move; all of the sensory information through which we are able to see, to hear, to smell, to taste, and to touch; and of course all of the cognitive information through which we are able to reason, to think, to dream, to plan, to remember, and to do everything else that we do with our minds.