Nervous Tissue

Nervous tissue consists of nerve cells, or neurons, which are specialized for the generation and conduction of electrical events, and of supporting cells, which provide the neurons with anatomical and functional support. Supporting cells in the brain and spinal cord are referred to as neuroglial cells, or often simply as glial cells.
Each neuron consists of three parts: (1) a cell body, (2) dendrites,
and (3) an axon. The cell body contains the nucleus and serves as the metabolic center of the cell. The dendrites (literally, “branches”) are highly branched cytoplasmic extensions of the cell body that receive input from other neurons or from receptor cells. The axon is a single cytoplasmic extension of the cell body that can be quite long (up to a few feet in length). It is specialized for conducting nerve impulses from the cell body to another neuron or to an effector (muscle or gland) cell.

A photomicrograph of nerve tissue. A single neuron and numerous smaller supporting cells can be seen.

The supporting cells do not conduct impulses but instead serve to bind neurons together, modify the extracellular environment of the nervous system, and influence the nourishment and electrical activity of neurons. Supporting cells are about five times more abundant than neurons in the nervous system and, unlike neurons, maintain a limited ability to divide by mitosis throughout life.