CH 3 & 4 Test Review Flashcards
What’s a Neuron
A. Cells in the nervous system that communicate with each other to perform information-processing tasks.
What’s the Cell Body?
A. Largest component of the neuron that coordinates the information-processing tasks and keeps the cell alive.
What’s a Dentrite?
A. Dendrites receive information from other neurons and relay it to the cell body.
What’s the Axon?
A. Carries information to other neurons, muscles, or glands.
What’s the Synapse?
A. The junction or region between the axon of one neuron and the dendrites or cell body of another.
What does the Sensory Neuron do?
A. Receive information from the external world and convey this information to the brain via the spinal cord. They have specialized endings on their dendrites that receive signals for light, sound, touch, taste, and smell. For example, sensory neurons’ endings in our eyes are sensitive to light.
What does the Motor Neuron do?
A. Carry signals from the spinal cord to the muscles to produce movement. These neurons often have long axons that reach to muscles at our extremities.
What does the Interneuron do?
A. Connect sensory neurons, motor neurons, or other interneurons. Interneurons work together in small circuits to perform simple tasks, such as identifying the location of a sensory signal, and much more complicated ones, such as recognizing a familiar face.
What are the Primary Components of the Neuron?
A. Dendrites, Cell Body, Axon
What’s the Process of Neuro Transmission?
A. Dendrites receive signal from other neurons in a form of chemicals, then if signal is strong enough, it will travel to the cell body, then to the axon, then to another set of dendrites of another neuron (action potential).
What’s the function of the Myelin Sheath?
A. The job of the myelin sheath (fatty layer outside of axon) is to help prevent the signal from degrading.
What is the Myelin Sheath made up of?
A. It is made up of Glial Cells. They are support cells found in the nervous system. These cells also clean toxic waste, prevent infections, prevent infections, transport nutrients, and also communicate electrically.
What’s Conduction?
A. The movement of an electric signal within neurons, from the dendrites to the cell body, then throughout the neuron.
What’s Transmission?
A. The movement of a signal from one neuron to another as a result of chemical signaling across the synapse.
What’s the Resting Potential?
A. The difference in electric charge between the inside and outside of a neuron’s cell membrane. The resting potential was measured to be about -70 millivolts.
What’s Action Potential?
A. An electrical signal that is conducted along the length of a neuron’s axon to a synapse.
What is Neurotransmitters?
A. Knoblike structures at the end of an axon.
What’s the Receptor?
A. Parts of the cell membrane that receive neurotransmitters and either initiate or prevent a new electric signal.
What’s Acetylcholine (ACh) and what does it do?
is a neurotransmitter involved in a number of functions, including voluntary motor control. Acetylcholine is found in neurons of the brain and in the synapses where axons connect to muscles and body organs, such as the heart. Acetylcholine activates muscle movements, and it also contributes to the regulation of attention, learning, sleeping, dreaming, and memory.
What’s Dopamine and what does it do?
A. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that regulates motor behavior, motivation, pleasure, and emotional arousal. Because of its role in basic motivated behaviors, such as seeking pleasure or associating actions with rewards, dopamine plays a role in drug addiction. High levels of dopamine in some brain pathways are linked to schizophrenia, whereas low levels in other areas are linked to Parkinson’s disease.
What’s GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)?
A. The primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, meaning that it tends to prevent the firing of neurons. Too much glutamate, or too little GABA, can cause neurons to become overactive, causing seizures.
What’s Serotonin and what does it do?
A. Serotonin is involved in the regulation of sleep and wakefulness, eating, and aggressive behavior. This effects mood and arousal, low levels of each have been implicated in mood disorders.
What are Endorphins and what do they do?
A. Endorphins are chemicals that act within the pain pathways and emotion centers of the brain. The “runner’s high” experienced by many athletes as they push their bodies to painful limits of endurance can be explained by the release of endorphins in the brain.
What is an Agonist?
A. A chemical that mimics the actions of a neurotransmitter and/or increases the action of the neurotransmitter.
