Axon
Axons are the long, spider-thin, tail-like structures found on neurons (nerve cells). Each neuron has a nerve body, dendrites, and axons, all of which are used to send information throughout your body. The axon carries signals (electric voltages) between the dendrites (the neuron’s input sites) and the terminal buttons (the neuron’s output sites that are at the very end of the axon). The signal always travels in the same direction – the signal comes into the neuron through the dendrites, through the cell body (soma), to the axon, and then out the terminal buttons to the dendrites of the next neuron. In this way, information travels all around your body by going from neuron to neuron.
2.
the long, thin, hollow, cylindrical extension of a neuron that normally carries a nerve impulse away from the cell body. An axon often branches extensively and may be surrounded by a protective myelin sheath. Each branch of an axon ends in a terminal button (also called synaptic bouton or knob, among numerous other synonyms) from which an impulse is transmitted, through discharge of a neurotransmitter, across a synapse to a neighboring neuron. Also called nerve fiber. —axonal adj.
