Neurons are specialized cells.
In the same way that some of your cells are specialized for reproduction or for producing sweat, neurons are specialized for irritation and conduction. Although most of your neurons are about equally balanced between the two, some fall at the extremes. They are not, however, very sensitive to irritation. Until the work of Santiago Ramon y Cajal and Camillo Golgi , it was not known whether neurons were similar to hollow pipes, conveying energy from place to place or individual cells which were not physically connected with each other. Thanks to these researchers working in the late 1800s and early 1900s, we now know that, with only a small number of exceptions, neurons are individual cells which communicate with each other chemically across microscopic gaps between one cell and the next.