Chapter 8 Flashcards
What does electrical signals in neuron entail?
Nerves and muscles are excitable, they can propagate signals into action potential to respond to stimuli, and this is all due to RMP and selective permeability of ion channels
What charge does the inside of a neuron have at rest?
Negative
What does RMP provide?
Chemical and electrical potential energy
What is another word for membrane potential?
Equilibrium potential
What is membrane potential influenced by?
Uneven distribution of charged ions across a cell
and
Differing membrane permeability to those ions
What is hyperpolarization or repolarization?
What is depolarization?
Where is sodium, chloride, and calcium are more concentrated?
Extracellular fluid
Where is potassium more concentrated?
Cytosol
What is RMP primarily determined by?
Potassium
Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz equation means what?
It predicts the membrane potential due to effects of all ions across the membrane
Depolarization
An increase in Na+ permeability will drive Na+ into the cell, down concentration gradient, making the inside more positive
Hyperpolarization
An increase in K+ permeability will drive K+ out of the cell, down concentration gradient, making the inside more negative
When do gated channels open and close?
As response to stimuli
What makes mechanically gated channels open?
In response to physical forces, such as pressure and stretch
What makes chemically gated channels respond?
To a variety of neurotransmitters, neuromodulators, or intracellular signals
What are the two main cells of the nervous system?
Neurons - the basic signalling unit
Glial cells - support cells
What part of the neuron receives signals?
Dendrites
What part of the neuron carries outgoing signals?
Axons
What is the site of communication in the neuron?
Synapse
Do neurons make up majority of the nervous system?
No
What is the cell body the site for?
Integration of electrical signals and protein synthesis
What happens at the axon hillock?
Where axon begins and where action potential is produced
What are the two basic electrical signals?
Graded potentials and action potentials
Graded potentials
waves of depolarization that travel over short distances in the dendrites and cell body and lose strength; always the first signal
Action Potential
Brief, large depolarizations that travel for long distances along an axon without losing strength