Chapter 4 - Anatomy of the Nervous System Flashcards
Ablation
removal of a structure
Anterior commissure
set of axons connecting the two cerebral hemispheres; smaller than the corpus callosum
Autonomic nervous system
set of neurons that regulates functioning of the internal organs
Bell-Magendie law
observation that the dorsal roots of the spinal cord carry sensory information and that the ventral roots carry motor information toward the muscles and glands
Binding problem
question of how the visual, auditory, and other areas of the brain influence one another to produce a combined perception of a single object
Central canal
fluid-filled channel in the center of the spinal cord
Central sulcus
large groove in the surface of the primate cerebral cortex, separating frontal from parietal cortex
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
liquid similar to blood serum, found in the ventricles of the brain and in the central canal of the spinal cord
Corpus callosum
large set of axons that connects the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex
Delayed-response task
assignment in which an animal must respond on the basis of a signal that it remembers but that is no longer present
Dorsal root ganglia
set of sensory neuron somata on the dorsal side of the spinal cord
Evoked potentials or evoked responses
electrical activity of the brain in response to a stimulus, as recorded from the scalp
Forebrain
most anterior part of the brain, including the cerebral cortex and other structures
Gene-knockout approach
use of biochemical methods to direct a mutation to a particular gene that is important for certain types of cells, transmitters, or receptors
Gray matter
areas of the nervous system with a high density of cell bodies and dendrites, with few myelinated axons
