The brain and spinal cord make up the central nervous system, CNS. It is one of the nervous system's two components. The peripheral nervous system, which consists of nerves linking the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body, is the other component. The body's processing center is the central nervous system. Neurons must communicate with one another for the nervous system to carry out any function, from a basic motor response to more complex ones like memory or decision making. Neurons communicate by electrical and chemical impulses, as opposed to humans who utilize words and physical language. One neuron typically receives and synthesizes messages from a number of other neurons before deciding to convey the message to additional neurons, just like a person in a committee. Electrical changes across the neuron membrane result in the passage of a nerve impulse along a neuron from one end to the other. An unstimulated neuron's membrane is polarized, meaning that the outside and inside of the membrane have different electrical charge.