Contrary to popular belief at the time, the nervous system is not a singular, self-contained, continuous network. It's made up of discrete neurons, a cell type that transmits chemical and electrical impulses from one end to a neighboring neuron. A neuron receives these signals through its branch-like dendrites, sends it across a long projection called an axon and shoots it out the axon terminal, across a gap called the synaptic cleft, and into the dendrites of the next neuron. In other words, the mind is made up of individual neurons making up this chain reaction, as if they were "talking" to each other.