Quote:
Originally Posted by Jordan  It's not necessarily the loss of signal strength - it's the fact that signals can "jump" from one nerve to another, in essence short-circuiting.
Imagine a stereo system that has speaker wires with no insulation - as long as you can keep the wires separate, you'll be ok, but if they touch, the signal gets transferred to the wrong wire and you'll end up with poor or no sound. |
but how would it jump? the signal is transferred by ionic differences between the inside and outside of the neuron and only transferable to other cells at the end, the synapse, using a totally different method.
and besides, the myelin sheath does not entirely insulate the neuron. it leaves gaps of the neuron exposed, which is actually how the signal can be passed down within a single neuron. if the signals can jump across, wouldn't that also be possible regardless of the presence of myelin sheathes because gaps completely lacking myelin exist in the first place?