or nerve cell
Any of the cells of the nervous system .
Sensory neurons relay information from sense organs, motor neurons carry impulses to muscles and glands, and interneurons transmit impulses between sensory and motor neurons. A typical neuron consists of dendrites (fibres that receive stimuli and conduct them inward), a cell body (a nucleated body that receives input from dendrites), and an axon (a fibre that relays the nerve impulse from the cell body outward to its terminals, the synaptic knobs). Both axons and dendrites may be referred to as nerve fibres. Impulses are conducted by neurotransmitter chemicals released by the axon's synaptic knobs across the synapses (junctions between neurons or between a neuron and an effector cell, such as a muscle cell) or, in some cases, pass directly from one neuron to the next. Most neurons are insulated by a myelin sheath formed by cells (Schwann cells) surrounding the axons. Bundles of fibres from neurons held together by connective tissue form nerves.