Biopsychology - The Nervous System

Question 1

What does bio psychology use to explain behaviour?

Answer 1

How biology influences behaviour.

Question 2

WHat does the nervous system allow you to do?

Answer 2

• Respond to changes in your environment (stimuli)

- To coordinate your actions

Question 3

What detects stimuli?

Answer 3

Receptors

Question 4

What brings about a response to the stimulus? What do they include?

Answer 4

Effectors. Include muscle cells and cells found in glands e.g. pancreas.

Question 5

How do receptors and effectors communicate?

Answer 5

Via the nervous or endocrine system, or both.

Question 6

What do the nervous and endocrine systems coordinate.

Answer 6

The response to a stimuli.

Question 7

What are the two parts of the nervous system?

Answer 7

The central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS).

Question 8

What is the central nervous system (CNS) made up of?

Answer 8

The brain and spinal cord.

Question 9

What is the peripheral nervous system made up of?

Answer 9

The neutrons that connect the CNS to the rest of the body.

Question 10

What are the two different systems of the PNS?

Answer 10

The somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system (ANS).

Question 11

What does the somatic nervous system control?

Answer 11

Conscious activities e.g. running and playing video games.

Question 12

What does the autonomic nervous system control?

Answer 12

Unconscious activities e.g. digestion.

Question 13

What are the two divisions of the autonomic nervous system?

Answer 13

The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.

Question 14

What does the parasympathetic nervous system do?

Answer 14

Calms the body down. It’s the ‘rest and digest system’.

Question 15

What dos the sympathetic nervous system do?

Answer 15

Gets the body ready for action. It’s the ‘flight or fight system’.

Question 16

What does the somatic nervous system connect CNS with?

Answer 16

The senses.

Question 17

What are neurons?

Answer 17

The cells of the nervous system.

Question 18

What do neurons do?

Answer 18

Transmit electrical information as electrical impulses around the body.

Question 19

What are dendrites?

Answer 19

The part of the neuron that receives information from other neurons.

Question 20

In what form does information pass along the axon?

Answer 20

As an electrical impulse.

Question 21

As the electrical impulse passes along the axon, where does it end up?

Answer 21

At the synaptic knob.

Question 22

What insulates the axon and for what purpose?

Answer 22

The myelin sheath insulates the axon to speed up nervous transmission.

Question 23

What are neurotransmitters and where are they released from?

Answer 23

Chemicals released form the synaptic knob.

Question 24

After neurotransmitters are released from the synaptic knob what happens to them?

Answer 24

They pass across the synapse, to pass on the signal to the dendrites of the next neuron.

Question 25

What do biopsychologists look at neurotransmitters for?

Answer 25

To work out what they do and how they can be influenced by things like diet, exercise and drugs.

Question 26

Why do biopsychologists work out how to manipulate neurotransmitters with medication?

Answer 26

To NORTON different behaviours. E.g. if a medication or diet was developed to reduce the neurotransmitters that signal stress, this could help people who get stressed out too easily.

Question 27

What are the three different types of neurons?

Answer 27

Sensory neurons, relay neurons and motor neurons.

Question 28

Sensory Neurons

Answer 28

The nerve cells that transmit electrical impulses from receptors to the CNS.

Question 29

Relay Neurons

Answer 29

The nerve cells that transmit electrical impulses between sensory neurons and motor neurons.

Question 30

Motor Neurons

Answer 30

The nerve cells that transmit electrical impulses from the CNS to effectors.

Question 31

Transmission of information to and from the CNS diagram:

Answer 31

Relay Neuron Sensory Neuron —> Motor Neuron Stimulus —> Receptors —> CNS —> Effectors —> Response

Question 32

What do reflexes help prevent?

Answer 32

Injury and damage.

Question 33

What are reflexes?

Answer 33

Fast, automatic responses to certain stimuli.

Question 34

Why are reflexes so rapid?

Answer 34

They bypass your conscious brain completely - instead they go through the spinal cord or through an unconscious part of the brain.

Question 35

What is a synapse?

Answer 35

The junction between a neuron and another neuron, or between a neuron and an effector cell, e.g. a muscle or gland cell.

Question 36

What is the tiny gap between the cells at a synapse called?

Answer 36

The synaptic cleft/ gap.