ShmoopTube

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And here's your shmoop du jour brought to you by branch like

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extensions just in time for the holidays here's our question neuronal branch-like [Man giving woman hair extensions]

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extensions that reach out to other neurons are called what and here are

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potential answers.....Well

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let's start this one off by going back to elementary school and busting out the [Students pull out crayons in classroom]

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crayon that's right we're going to do some drawing, does this illustration look

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very branchy to you, no? well you're probably thinking it looks a bit more

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like a teardrop or a sort of crooked eyeball or maybe even a cell body [man with a crooked eye]

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containing ribonucleic acids proteins and the cell nucleus...Okay that might

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be a bit of a stretch but it's right because what we've drawn here is A) the

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soma or cell body not very branch like and not our answer all right here's

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wrong number two Hershey's kiss in a gummy worm maybe funny little gnome hat [A hershey's kiss and a gummy worm]

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floating above a wave of strawberry jelly not likely branch like no way nope [Gnome floating in a bowl of jelly]

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this right here is a synapse a structure that permits the neuron to pass

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electrical and chemical information other neurons no good - Next up sorry to [Man looking disappointed]

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disappoint you this isn't a diamond necklace and it's also not very branchy

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that's because we've just drawn an axon whose purpose is to transmit information

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away from the cell body to different neurons well how about this looks pretty [Information sent away from cell body to other neurons]

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similar to the previous drawing right well that's because it's a myelin sheath

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whose purpose is to protect the axon, also not our answer okay one more then

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we'll put crayons away those very branch like branches are actually the dendrite [A dendrite cell]

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which branch out in order to receive information from other neurons so C) it

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is and just in case we haven't said it enough - branch branch branch branch branch

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okay crayons away now back to serious stuff time to break out the markers [Students put crayons back and take out markers]

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