Glossary
nervous tissue
Nervous tissue carries electrical signals: neurons generate and conduct them, and glial cells insulate, feed and support the neurons.
Nervous tissue carries information as electrical signals, and two cell families do the work. A neuron generates the signal at its cell body, sends it down a single axon, and hands it to the next cell at a synapse; the dendrites are its receiving branches. Glial cells do not conduct the impulse themselves — they support it: they wrap axons in myelin so a signal travels faster, feed the neurons, clear the space around them and form the blood-brain barrier. Nervous tissue is found in the brain, the spinal cord and the nerves running to every organ, and it is the only tissue that both senses a change and orders a response. That is why it appears beside muscle in the reflex arc: the nerve reports the stretch, the spinal cord decides, the muscle acts.
Taught in
Related terms
- tissue — A tissue is a group of similar cells with a shared job and the material between them — the level between a cell and an organ.
- muscle tissue — Muscle tissue shortens to produce movement, and its three kinds — skeletal, smooth and cardiac — differ in where they are and whether they obey you.
- receptor — A receptor is the structure that detects a change — the sensor of a feedback loop, reporting temperature, pressure, chemistry or stretch.
- effector — An effector is what carries out a feedback loop's response — a muscle that contracts or a gland that secretes.
Source: The anatomy and physiology guide in this course, whose organ and tissue descriptions follow the US National Cancer Institute's SEER Training Modules and MedlinePlus consumer health pages. Both are US federal government material, not subject to copyright in the United States. The definition above is written for this course in our own words. (SEER Training Modules accessed 2026-10-26; definition written 2026-10-27)