Chapter 3 - 'Role Of The Neuron' Flashcards
Define ‘neural pathway’.
Complex chains and networks of neurons.
What form do neurons carry information in?
AKA?
Action potential.
Neural impulses.
Define ‘neuron’.
An individual nerve cell
Define a ‘dendrite’ and their role.
What extends from them? Explain their role.
A thin extension of a neuron branching out of the soma, receive information from other neurons through terminal buttons.
Dendritic spines, which act as an additional site where the a neuron can connect.
Define what a ‘soma’ is and its role.
What does it contain? What does it do?
The cell body of a neuron which integrates the neural information received and sends it along the axon.
The nucleus, which contains the biochemical information that maintains the neuron and keeps it functioning.
List three types of neurons found in the body?
Sensory neurons
Inter neurons
Motor neurons
Define an ‘axon’.
Define an ‘axon collateral’.
A long thread-like part of a nerve cell along where impulses are conducted from the cell body to other cells.
A thin extension of the axon branching off and forming more sites of connection.
Define an ‘axon terminal’ and their role.
Define ‘terminal button’ and their role.
How does the ‘terminal button’ work?
A branch like extension emitting from the axon collateral, which forms another site of transmission.
Small knob like swellings found at the end of the axon terminals and dendritic spines, which transmit and receive action potential.
Like a sac, they store and secrete a chemical called neurotransmitter which sends the messages between the neurons.
Define ‘myelin’.
What does it do?
Where is commonly myelin located?
A mixture of proteins and phospholipids forming a whitish insulating sheath.
- Increases the speed at which impulses are conducted.
- Prevents axons from interacting with others in vicinity.
Most commonly along axons.
Approximately, how many neurons are in the brain?
86 billion
What are the periodic gaps in the insulating myelin known as?
Node of Ranvier.
