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Multiple Choice

Which part of the neuron conducts impulses away from the cell body?

The essential idea is that the path that carries electrical signals away from the neuron’s body is the axon. Signals are received and integrated mainly by dendrites and the cell body, but once an action potential is formed—usually at the axon hillock—it travels along the axon and moves away from the cell body toward the axon terminals to communicate with other cells at the synapse. The myelin sheath helps speed this transmission, especially in myelinated fibers, by enabling rapid jumping of the impulse between gaps called nodes of Ranvier, but its role is in speed, not the direction. Dendrites are the input branches that bring information in, and the synapse is the junction where the signal leaves the neuron to affect the next cell. Since the axon is the structure that conducts impulses outward from the neuron, it is the correct choice.

The essential idea is that the path that carries electrical signals away from the neuron’s body is the axon. Signals are received and integrated mainly by dendrites and the cell body, but once an action potential is formed—usually at the axon hillock—it travels along the axon and moves away from the cell body toward the axon terminals to communicate with other cells at the synapse. The myelin sheath helps speed this transmission, especially in myelinated fibers, by enabling rapid jumping of the impulse between gaps called nodes of Ranvier, but its role is in speed, not the direction. Dendrites are the input branches that bring information in, and the synapse is the junction where the signal leaves the neuron to affect the next cell. Since the axon is the structure that conducts impulses outward from the neuron, it is the correct choice.