In article <52kil0$opn at gaia.ns.utk.edu>, veery at utkux1.utcc.utk.edu (Horace Veery) writes:
>I have a basic question regarding neurons. I know that neural arbors are
>generally characterized as afferent (dendritic) and efferent (axonal), but I
>also know that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other in a
>practical sense. Is it actually possible to take any arbitrary segment of
>neural fiber and determine the directionality of signals flowing along that
>fiber? Are there static, physical features that establish a directionality,
>or is it theoretically possible for impluses to flow in either direction along
>a neural fiber? Have experiments been done which measure the directionality
>of fibers, or which test whether impulses do travel in only one direction? Is
>the distinction between axon and dendrite absolute? Is it a convenient
>simplification or a well-established neurobiological fact?
>>References to texts or journals would be appreciated, as would URLs. Please
>post to this group and/or to rikki at zool46.bio.utk.edu>>Thank you,
>>Rikki Hall
hi rikki,
there was an article published in the last 4-5 years in trends in
neurosciences. as i recall, there are distinct structural differences between
the dentrites and the axon rendering the functions.
i looked around a bit and can't find my copy of the article - the title is
something like, 'what makes a neuron work,' or, 'how a neuron works.'
hope this helps,
colleen
