There are two classes of cells in the nervous system: the neuron and the glial cell (see Chapter 3).
The neuron is the basic functional unit of the nervous system. The large number of neurons and their interconnections account for the complexity of the nervous system. The number of neurons in the vertebrate nervous system ranges from approximately 100 million in a small mammal (e.g., mouse) to 100 billion in a human to well over 200 billion in whales and elephants» far more neurons in a nervous system than people on Earth, and there are 10 to 50 times more glial cells.
The structural and functional support provided to neurons by glial cells and their potential to modulate neural communication make an important contribution to the operational integrity of the nervous system. The numbers of cells in the nervous system are huge, but knowing that they have common elements makes it easier to understand them.
More on the topic There are two classes of cells in the nervous system: the neuron and the glial cell (see Chapter 3).:
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