Module 4 Flashcards
A branch of psychology concerned with the links between biology and behavior.
Biological psychology
A nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system.
Neuron
The bushy, branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body.
Dendrite
The extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands.
Axon
A layer of fatty tissue sentimentally encasing the fibers of many neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed of neural impulses as the impulse hops from one node to the next
Myelin sheath
A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge the travels down an axon. The action potential is generated by the movement of positively charged atoms in and out of channels in the axon’s membrane.
Action potential
The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse.
Threshold
The junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron. The tiny gap at this junction is called the synaptic gap.
Synapse
Chemical messengers that traverse the synaptic gaps between neurons. When released by the sending neuron, neurotransmitters travel across the synapse and bind to receptors sites on the receiving neuron, thereby influencing whether that neuron will generate a neural impulse.
Neurotransmitter
In neurotransmitter that enables learning and memory and also triggers muscle contraction
Acetylcholine
“Morphine within” -natural, opiatelike neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure.
Endorphins
The body’s speedy electrochemical communication network, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral an central nervous systems.
Nervous system
The brain and spinal cord.
Central nervous system
The sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body.
Peripheral nervous system
Neural “cables” containing many axons. These bundled axons, which are part of the peripheral nervous system, connect the central nervous system with muscles, glands, and sense organs.
Nerves
Neurons that carry incoming information form the sense receptors to the central nervousness system.
Sensory neurons
Neurons that carry outgoing information from the central nervous system to the muscles and glands.
Motor neurons
Central nervous system neurons that internally communicate and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs.
Interneurons
The division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body’s skeletal muscles. Also called the skeletal nervous system.
Somatic nervous system
The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (such as the heart). It’s sympathetic division arouses it’s parasympathetic division calms.
Autonomic nervous system
The division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations.
Sympathetic nervous system
The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving it’s energy
Parasympathetic nervous system
A simple, automatic, inborn response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response.
Reflex
Interconnected neural cells. With experience, networks can learn, as feedback strengthens or inhibits connections that produce certain result. Computer simulations of neural networks show analogous learning.
Neural networks
The body’s “slow” chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream
Endocrine system
Chemical messengers, mostly those manufactured by the endocrine glands, that are produced in one tissue and affect another.
Hormones
A pair of endocrine glands just above the kidneys. The adrenals secrete hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine which help to arouse the body in times of stress.
Adrenal glands
The endocrine system’s most influential gland. Under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands
Pituitary gland
