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Myelin is a multilayered wrapping of glial cell membrane around segments of an axon. Its lipid-rich layers increase electrical insulation and reduce effective membrane capacitance, helping local electric current reach the next node of Ranvier. Action potentials are regenerated at these gaps, producing saltatory conduction.^[ref]

A Schwann cell makes one myelinated segment in the peripheral nervous system; an oligodendrocyte can supply segments on several axons in the central nervous system. The thickness and spacing of myelin affect signal timing. In a mouse experiment, altered visual experience changed myelin segment length and optic nerve conduction, linking experience to the physical geometry of neural transmission.^[ref]

Myelination forms layers of myelin around segments of an axon. Oligodendrocytes produce these sheaths in the central nervous system, while Schwann cells do so in the peripheral nervous system. Gaps, each called a node of Ranvier, allow action potentials to be regenerated between insulated segments, supporting saltatory conduction.

The arrangement affects when signals reach their targets, not just whether an axon is present. In mice, altered visual experience shortened segments wrapped in myelin along the optic nerve pathway and was associated with slower conduction along the optic nerve. The observations connected environmental input, myelin sheath geometry and a measured physiological consequence.^[ref] This experimental result does not imply that more myelin always produces a uniformly faster or better-performing nervous system; segment geometry and the timing required by a circuit matter.

A node of Ranvier is a short gap between adjacent myelin sheaths along an axon. Its exposed cell membrane contains a high density of voltage-dependent sodium channels, allowing an action potential to be regenerated after local electric current has spread beneath the preceding sheath. Repetition of this arrangement supports saltatory conduction.^[ref]

A node is not a gap in the axon itself. The interior remains continuous while the surrounding insulation is interrupted. This distinction explains how current can travel between electrically excitable regions without crossing a synapse.

An oligodendrocyte is a glial cell that forms myelin around axons in the central nervous system. Different processes from one oligodendrocyte can wrap separate segments of several axons. The insulated segments alternate with nodes of Ranvier, allowing saltatory conduction.^[ref]

This branching arrangement differs from the one myelinated segment made by a peripheral Schwann cell. Insulation is part of circuit function: changes to the number or geometry of sheaths can alter when signals arrive. Experiments manipulating visual experience in mice linked altered oligodendrocyte-generated sheath geometry to changes in optic nerve conduction.^[ref]

Saltatory conduction is propagation along a myelinated axon in which action potentials are regenerated mainly at successive nodes of Ranvier. Beneath the myelin, local electric current spreads to the next node and brings its excitable cell membrane toward threshold. The signal does not teleport across an electrically inactive gap: passive spread between nodes and active regeneration at nodes work together.^[ref]

The myelin reduces leakage and the effective membrane capacitance that must be charged along an insulated segment. This allows rapid transmission without requiring an enormous axon diameter. Removing the insulation can slow propagation or prevent the next node reaching threshold; axon continuity alone therefore does not guarantee reliable signaling.^[ref]

A Schwann cell is a glial cell of the peripheral nervous system that ensheaths axons. A myelinating Schwann cell wraps its cell membrane repeatedly around one segment of one axon, producing myelin. Adjacent Schwann cells leave a node of Ranvier between their sheaths, supporting saltatory conduction.^[ref]

Other Schwann cells support small axons without building thick myelin sheaths. Thus being associated with a Schwann cell does not imply that a peripheral fibre is myelinated. The one-segment arrangement also differs from an oligodendrocyte, whose processes can myelinate parts of several central axons.