- "The activity of #Neuron(s) depends on two things. One is their electrical excitability, seen especially in the action potential, an electrical spasms that moves along a cell in a chain reaction. The other is chemical sensing and signaling. A neuron will release a tiny spray of chemicals into the gap or "clef" between it and another neuron. These chemicals, when they are detected at the other side, can help trigger (or in some cases suppress) an action potential in that adjoining cell. This chemical influence is the residue of ancient signaling between organisms, pressed inward. The action potential, too, existed in cells before animals evolved, and exists today outside of them. The first one ever measured, in fact, was in a Plant(s), the #Venus flytrap, at the instigation of #Charles Darwin. #Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith #Peter Godfrey-Smith
See also: #Nervous system #Neurotransmitter(s)