Chapter 2 (neuroscience) Flashcards
Central Nervous System
Brain and Spinal cord
Peripheral Nervous System
the sensory and
motor neurons that connect the central nervous
system (CNS) to the rest of the body
Autonomic nervous system
Controls involuntary bodily functions and regulates glands.
Somatic nervous system
Controls muscle movement and relays information from ears, eyes and skin to the central nervous system.
Sympathetic nervous system
Responds to dangerous or stressful situations
Parasympathetic nervous system
responsible for the body’s rest and digestion response when the body is relaxed, resting, or feeding.
Cell Body
Life support center of the neuron
Dendrites
Branching extensions at the cell body and receives messages from other neurons
Axon
Long single extension of a neuron, covered with myelin sheath to insulate and speed up messages through neurons.
Terminal Branches
Branched endings of an axon that transmit messages to other neurons.
How Neurons
Work/Transmit Information
Neurons function using electro-chemical processes
Axonal Transmission
A neural impulse. A brief electrical charge that travels down an axon
Synaptic Transmission
occurs when neurotransmitters are released into the synapse
All-or-None Response
A strong stimulus can trigger more neurons to fire, and to fire more often, but it does not affect the action potentials strength or speed
What happens to the Intensity of an action potential?
remains the same
throughout the length of the axon
what’s the tiny gap between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron
synaptic gap
Reuptake
Neurotransmitters in the synapse are reabsorbed into the
sending neurons through the process
Lock & Key Mechanism
Neurotransmitters bind to the receptors of the receiving neuron
Motor Neurons
carry outgoing information from the CNS to muscles and glands
Sensory Neurons
carry incoming information from the sense receptors to the CNS
Interneurons
Connect the two neurons
Neurotransmitters
chemical messengers that your body can’t function without
how neurotransmitters work?
relay their messages by traveling between cells and attaching to specific receptors on target cells
Techniques to Study the Brain
-Lesioning-destruction of brain tissue.
-Study of brain damage.
-Electroencephalogram (EEG)
-PET Scans
-MRI /fMRI Scans
-Magnetoencephalgraphy (MEG)
what are hormones?
chemical substances that act like messenger molecules in the body
how do hormones work?
From the blood stream, the hormones communicate with the body by heading towards their target cell to bring about a particular change or effect to that cell.
Hindbrain parts
brain stem: cerebellum, medulla, reticular formation, and thalamus
Midbrain parts
limbic system: hypothalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus
Forebrain parts
cerebral cortex: 4 lobes, frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital
Hindbrain function
responsible for automatic survival functions.
medulla
controls heartbeat and breathing
Cerebellum
helps coordinate voluntary
movements and balance
Reticular Formation
controls arousal
Thalamus
sensory switchboard: directs
messages to the sensory
areas in the cortex and
transmits replies to the
cerebellum and
medulla.
Midbrain function
associated with emotions
such as fear, aggression
and drives for food and
sex
hippocampus
involved
in the storage
of explicit
memories.
Amygdala
linked to the
emotions of fear and
anger
Hypothalamus
directs several maintenance
activities like eating,
drinking, body
temperature, and control
of emotions.
Frontal lobe
planning, judgment,
speaking, muscle movement-
motor cortex
Parietal lobe
receives sensory input,
touch-sensory cortex
Occipital lobe
receives input from
visual fields
Temporal lobe
receives input from ears and taste, as well as smell
Left hemisphere
processes reading, writing,
speaking, mathematics, analytical and sequential skills
Right Hemisphere
associated with visual perception, music, recognition of emotions and faces, holistic thinking, and creativity
corpus callosum
the primary commissural region of the brain consisting of white matter tracts that connect the left and right cerebral hemispheres.
