kristinmountillustration:  Quickie neuron illustration for an Anatomy and Physiology book years ago. It was done in Illustrator v5.0 and Photoshop v.4.0 in around 1996. The blue-ish cylinder-like wrappers around the nerve axon are fatty myelin sheaths, which help conduct nerve impulses along the axon toward the synapses to other nerves. In the disease multiple sclerosis, myelin is damaged and scarred- a process that is known as demyelination. The reduction or loss of nerve impulse transfer results in the hallmark symptoms of MS- loss of sensation, movement, and cognition. Often the first nerve to demyelinate in MS is the optic nerve, which is why often vision problems are an early symptom of MS.