04 - Neural & Hormonal Systems Flashcards
Where did Plato believe in mind was located?
The head
Who created phrenology?
The German physician Franz Galll in the 1800s
What do biological psychologists study?
Links between biological activity and psychological events
What is A neuron?
A nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system.
What are sensory neurons?
Neurons that carry incoming information from the sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord.
What are motor neurons?
Neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands.
What are interneurons?
Neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs.
What is a dendrite?
The bushy, branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body.
What is an axon?
The extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands.
What is the myelin sheath?
A layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibers of many neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed of neural impulses as the impulse hops from one node to the next.
What is action potential?
A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down and axon.
What are three types of neurons?
Sensory (afferent)
Motor
Interneurons
What are the main components of a neuron?
Dendrites
Cell Body
Axon (Myelin Sheath, nodes)
Terminal Buttons
Compared to a computer how fast does your brain operate?
Impulses travel 3 Million times slower.
What causes an action potential and neuron?
When stimulated by signals from our senses or when triggered by chemical signals from neighboring neurons.
How do Neurons generate electricity?
from chemical events (like batteries)
What are ions?
Electrically charged atoms
What is a resting potential?
The state of negatively charged ions in the fluid interior of a resting axon, and positively charged ions outside. (-70 mV interior)
What does it mean to say an Axon is selectively permeable?
Very selective about what it allows in. (gates that block positive sodium ions)
What is the purpose of the cell body?
life support center of the neuron.
Who were Hodgkin and Huxley?
1940’s nobel price winners for their work in Neuroscience. RMP - resting membrane potential. (-70 millivolts (mV)
What is the RMP of a neuron?
Resting Membrane Potential. -70 mV. Always partically charged. fire easier if always ready.
What occurs during the action potential at the ion level?
when N is stimulated, voltage-gated channels open, Na+ rush in and are pumped out (membrane doesn’t like positively charged sodium) Sodium potassium(K+) pumps open and close down axon.
What changes a Neuron’s polarity? Levels of stimulation?
Stimulation. Weak = no fire (-60mV)
Threshold (MP = -55mV) = fire. Reverse polarity,/depolarization.
What is a threshold?
level of stimulation required to trigger a nerual impulse.
How is an action potential reached? (when discussing threshold)
When excitatory signals - inhibitory signals exceed the threshold, an action potential is reached.
What is Summation?
the combined effects of all signals (excitatory and inhibitory) reaching a N’s dendrites.
Where does communication between Neurons happen?
at the synapse