What is soma?

What Does soma Mean

Soma is a concept that has multiple meanings. Derived from the Latin summa , the word can be used to identify a variety of coarse flour and bread made with this ingredient.

The notion also serves to refer to the total body structure of living organisms, with the exception of gametes.
From the perspective of botany, the notion is intended to identify a plant with psychotropic characteristics whose sap was used in Vedic religious rituals. This plant has not yet been individualized, although it is mentioned in numerous ancient texts that refer to its energizing properties.
It should also be noted that the writer Aldous Huxley ( 1894 - 1963 ) baptized as soma a substance consumed by the protagonists of his novel "Brave New World . " This drug is said to act as an antidepressant by causing people to forget their sorrows.

The mausoleum that housed the remains of Alexander the Great has received, on the other hand, the name of soma. Archaeologists believe that it would be located in the Egyptian city of Alexandria .
Soma or somatherapy , in other areas, is a therapy created by the Brazilian Roberto Freire who considers that neurotic conflicts arise from existing power relations in society .
Finally, the so-called Soma cube is a geometric puzzle that challenges to fit seven parts into a main structure. Piet Hein was the creator of this puzzle that was born in 1936 and that can be solved, according to some mathematicians, in 240 different ways. It should be noted that the Soma cube also allows you to create other geometric or figurative designs.
Neurological acceptance
Soma is also the name given to the composition of a neuron (including its nucleus and nucleoli). That is, it represents the center of the cell that has the ability to receive stimuli; without it, the life of the neuron is not possible.
Regarding its size, it differs according to the neuron, it can range from 4 to 150 microns. It is made up of the nucleus , the cytoplasm (with all the parts of which it is composed: neurofilaments, endoplasmic reticulum, microtubules, etc.) and the processes (made up of dendrites and axons).
Neurons are the structural units of the nervous system (present in all living beings belonging to the Animal Kingdom ) and, thanks to the fact that they are arranged in the body through complex networks, they can communicate fluently each region of the body with the Nervous System, allowing one of the characteristics that differentiates living beings from other organisms, irritability (ability to respond to various stimuli from the external environment).

The functions of the soma within the neuron are three: to sustain the functional and anatomical efficiency of the neuron, to extend the processes so that the surface area in which nerve impulses can be transmitted increases, and to ensure the normal functioning of neurotransmitters through synthesis. of messenger-type chemicals.
Neurons can be classified based on various criteria.

From a morphological point of view they can be: unipolar (they have a single prolongation, which is called an axon), bipolar (they have two processes, called dendrite and axon) and multipolar (they have more than two processes: two or more dendrites and an axon ).
According to their functionality they can be: sensory (they transfer the impulses from a receptor to the nervous center), motor (they communicate the modulating centers with the effectors) and interneurons (they communicate the sensory pathways with the motor within the nervous system) and motor.
In turn, there is a third classification that takes into account the conduction speed, in this case the neurons can be unmyelinated (they lack myelin and conduct impulses slowly) or myelinic (the conduction speed is related to the thickness of the its myelin, the greater the thickness, the greater the velocity).
It is worth mentioning that myelin is a substance with insulating characteristics that covers the axons of neurons, allowing the fluid conduction of stimuli from one region to another.

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