Your body communicates with itself both electrically and chemically. Your nervous system, which includes your brain, spinal cord and all the nerves, will use electrical and chemical messages to allow you to move, smell, see, feel pain and think. The nervous system is an internal communication system. The main cell of the nervous system is the neuron. the neuron transmits nerve impulses, which are electrical signals, and then sends chemicals to the next neuron across a very small gap between them. The typical neuron has the same basic features. the cell body contains the nucleus and many organelles and has long tendrils projecting from it called dendrites. these dendrites pick up signals from their environment or other neurons. A signal will travel from the dendrite to the long axon. Some axons can be several feet long! The axons carry the signal to the end of the axon, often called the axon terminal where messages are then sent in the form of chemicals to the next cell. A nerve impulse travels very quickly, about 1 meter per second. But many nerve fibers have a way to transmit signals up to 100 times faster. Special cells called Schwann cells will grow around the axon in wrapped layers like a cinnamon roll. Each wrap creates a coating of myelin and phospholipid bilayers which act similarly to an insulator on an electrical wire. In between each Schwann cell is a small gap of expose axon called a node of Ranvier. These nodes are important for speeding up the impulse. In a myelinated axon, the electrical impulse jumps quickly from node to node instead of moving continuously along the length of the axon. This jumping of the nerve impulse is called saltatory conduction (salta means jump in Latin) and impulses can travel up to 100 meters per second. Thank you for watching Teacher's Pet. Don't forget to like and subscribe and follow me on Twitter at SciencePet.