Module 1.3a: Neurons Flashcards
Enables muscle action, learning, and memory
Undersupply linked to Alzheimers
Acetylcholine (ACh)
Influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion
Oversupply: Schizophrenia
Undersupply: Parkinson’s
Dopamine
Affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal
Undersupply: Depression
Seratonin
Helps control alertness and arousal
Undersupply can depress mood
Norepinephrine
A major inhibitory neurotransmitter
Undersupply: seizures, tremors, insomnia
GABA
A major excitatory neurotransmitter involved in memory
Oversupply can overstimulate brain, causing migraines or seizures
glutamate
Natural, opiod-like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and pleasure
endorphins
Involved in pain perception and immune response
Oversupply: Chronic pain
substance P
the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural response
Threshold
a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon
Action potential
the electrical potential difference between the inside and outside of a neuron
Resting potential
a brief resting pause in neural processing that occurs after a neuron has fired
refractory period
a neurons reaction of either firing (with a full-strength response) or not firing
All-or-none response
Chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gap between neurons and bind to receptors sites on the receiving neuron
Neurotransmitters
the junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron
Synapse
A neurotransmitter’s reabsorption by the sending neuron
Reuptake
a nerve cell, the basic building block of the nervous system
Neuron
a neuron’s branching extensions that receive and integrate messages, conducting impulses toward the cell body
dendrites
the part of a neuron that contains the nucleus
Soma or cell body
the segmented neuron extension that passes messages through it’s branches to other neurons or to muscles or glands
Axon
Information is passed through these to other neurons or muscles or glands
Axon terminals
a fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons; it enables greater transmission speed as neural impulses hop from one node to the next
Myelin sheath
Gaps in the myelin sheath that allow ions to diffuse in and out of the neuron
Nodes of Ranvier
glial cells that form the myelin sheath on axons outside the brain
Schwann cells
cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons, also play a role in learning, thinking, and memory
Glial cells
