Biopsychology Flashcards
How can the nervous system be divided?
Central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS)
What is the endocrine system?
hormone system; is much slower to communicate but much longer lasting than the nervous system
What is the nervous system?
The body’s fast and short lived system of communication
What does the peripheral nervous system consist of?
Somatic nervous system (controls voluntary movements)
Automatic/Autonomic nervous system (controls involuntary responses/actions)
How can the Automatic nervous system be divided?
Sympathetic division: fight or flight
Parasympathetic division: rest or digest
What are the key sections of the brain (general)?
Frontal lobe (problem solving), Parietal lobe (sensory processing), temporal lobe (language and auditory processing), occipital lobe (visual processing), cerebellum (fine motor movements)
What are the key sections of the inner brain?
Hypothalamus (regulating endocrine system), Limbic system (animal instincts), thalamus (processing sensory info), hippocampus (memory), pituatary gland (master gland in endocrine system), cerebellum
What is a neuron?
neurons are cells that process and transmit messages through electrical and chemical signals
What are the parts of the neuron?
Cell body, dendrites, axon, myelin sheath, nodes of Ranvier, terminal buttons
What is the cell body?
Includes nucleus, containing the genetic material of the cell
What are the dendrites and terminal buttons?
Dendrites- protrude from cell body. carry nerve impulses from neighbouring neurons towards the cell body
Terminal buttons: communicate with the dendrites of the next neuron
What is the axon and myelin sheath?
Axon- carries impulses away from cell body
Myelin sheath- protects axon and speeds up electrical transmission
What are the nodes of Ranvier?
They are segmented gaps in the myelin sheath that speed up the impulse by forcing it to ‘jump’ across gaps down the axon
What are sensory neurons?
Internal and external receptor cells around the body take in information from the 5 senses. Information is then carried from the PNS to the CNS (brain)
Unipolar- one protrusion from cell body, Long dendrites
What are relay neurons?
Carry messages from one part of the CNS to another
Connect sensory and motor neurons or between relay neurons
Multipolar
What are motor neurons?
Carry messages from CNS
Connect the CNS to ‘effectors’ (such as muscles, organs and glands)
Short dendrites, long axons
What is a synapse?
Neurons do not touch, between each is a tiny gap called a synapse or synaptic gap
How are signals within neurons transmitted?
electrically
How do signals travel across synapses?
chemically
What is the first stage of synaptic transmission?
Electrical impulse reaches the pre-synaptic nerve terminal and triggers synaptic vesicles to move to the pre-synaptic cell membrane
What is the second stage of synaptic transition?
Synaptic vesicles fuse with the pre-synaptic cell membrane and release neuro-transmitters into the synaptic gap
What is the third stage of synaptic transition?
These neuro-transmitters enter the synaptic fluid and diffuses across the synaptic gap. If the neuro-transmitter fits the receptor sites of the post-synaptic neuron, it is taken up
What is the final stage of synaptic transmission?
Once enough receptors have neuro-transmitters bound to them, the chemical message is converted back into an electrical impulse
What is the lock and key mechanism?
when the right neurotransmitter (key) meets the right receptor (lock) a specific ion channel in the membrane is opened up
ions flow through the membrane into the neuron along their pathway. The flooding of ions cause a potential in the dendrites