Axon

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Learn about the morphology and histology of neurons, the basic building blocks of the nervous system.

Axons are processes from the cell body (soma) or from the axon hillock (a specialized part of the cell body) of a neuron that conduct impulses away from cell body.

Unlike dendrites that are a series of processes in the vicinity of the cell body which receive information, axons are typically a single, longer, cylinderical process that transmit information to a remote destination.

Axons may be myelinated by oligodendrocytes in the central nervous system (CNS) and by Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system (PNS) or may be unmyelinated altogether. Axons ultimately give rise to several terminal branches that communicate with other neurons via synapses.