Practice question · Put in order
Order the path a signal travels through a single neuron.
- The signal reaches the axon terminal to be passed to the next cell.
- Dendrites receive incoming signals from other neurons.
- If threshold is reached, an action potential begins at the start of the axon.
- The soma integrates those incoming signals.
- The action potential travels down the axon, leaping between the nodes of Ranvier.
Hints
- Signals come IN through dendrites and go OUT along the axon.
- Integration in the soma decides whether the axon fires; the terminal is the last stop.
Show the answer
- Dendrites receive incoming signals from other neurons.
- The soma integrates those incoming signals.
- If threshold is reached, an action potential begins at the start of the axon.
- The action potential travels down the axon, leaping between the nodes of Ranvier.
- The signal reaches the axon terminal to be passed to the next cell.
Why
Dendrites receive, the soma integrates, the axon fires and conducts (leaping between nodes), and the terminal hands off the signal. Receiving precedes integrating precedes sending - the neuron's fixed one-way flow.
Practise The Neuron and Action Potentials
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