Neurons communicate with each other via release of neurotransmitters, which interact with receptors in the synaptic junction. It should be noted that the nervous system accomplishes a variety of functions through utilizing a limited array of neurotransmitters and receptors. Similar motifs are utilized by motor neurons releasing acetylcholine onto skeletal muscle, and by opioid interneurons in the spinal cord that regulate sensory neuronal activity. The neuron represents a specialized cell with all of the subcellular elements found in eukaryotic cells. The neuron is generally thought to be bipolar in that information is received on one end and transmitted through the cell to another cell at the other end of the cell, but there are relatively few neurons that follow this simple organizing principle.
Neurons can be unipolar with a single axonal process or multipolar with more than two processes.
Axons send electrical signals from the cell body to the axon terminal for transmission to another cell. Dendrites receive information from other cells, and dendritic branching increases the surface area available to a cell for receiving input. Other common cellular features may have modified roles in neurons. Nucleolus - site of transcription. Rough endoplasmic reticulum - enclosed stacks of membrane with globular structures called ribosomes extend throughout the cell for protein synthesis, particularly for membrane proteins.