3.15 Neuronal Energy Production

The voluntary and involuntary communication within the body occurs through the nervous system. The building blocks of the nervous system are electrically excitable neurons and neuroglia. They require large amount of ATP in a very short period of time to be able to reestablish resting membrane conditions after transmitting signals as electric current; entropy generation accompanies this process. Generally, a single neuron cannot provide the sufficient energy to achieve this and will need the support of neuroglia. This chapter includes theories of signal transmission along the neurons parallel with the basic thermodynamic knowledge to describe energy supply and consumption.