Our nervous system is made of cells that are arranged end-to-end, like a telephone network, to transmit signals. Transmission of information and stimuli in a nerve cell is carried out via electric transmission. The signals from the neighboring nerve cell are received by the treetop-shaped extensions of a nerve cell and converted into an electric current. The electric signals then whiz along a nerve path, all the way into the root-like ramification.

When the signals reach the branched endings of the nerve pathway, a tiny gap or synapse blocks their transmission to the next nerve cell. As a result, the nerve cells cannot transmit the signals electrically, but rather the electric impulses have to be transformed into chemical signals. The nerve cells’ messenger substances are “packaged” in cargo vesicles. These vesicles are filled up inside the nerve cell and are then transported to the edge. At the arrival of the electric signal, the memory vesicles merge with the cell membrane. While doing so, they release the messengers into the small gap between the nerve cells. The messengers travel across that gap and carry the signals to the next cell.

On this nerve cell's surface there are certain sites onto which the messengers can dock. Thus the neighboring cell receives the signal. The docking sites function as a kind of "antennas". When the chemical messenger docks, the antenna is deformed. This is a signal for the nerve cell that the messenger has arrived. The messenger’s information then is re-converted into an electrical signal that is sent to the nerve cell's other end, where the above procedure is repeated. There are many different messengers. Each sort of messenger can only dock at a site where it fits like a key in its lock. This makes it possible for nerve cells to exchange different kinds of messages with each other. Each single nerve cell receives thousands of messages. It is not each single message that is decisive in determining what to do. Rather, the nerve cell combines the information provided by all arriving messengers into one message.