Nervous System

Question 1

What does the nervous system do?

Answer 1

A: control and coordinate all functions of the body

Question 2

What are the two main subdivisions of the nervous system?

Answer 2

1. Central nervous system
2. Peripheral nervous system

Question 3

What is a neuron?

Answer 3

A: the scientific name for a nerve cells

Question 4

What are the three basic structures of a neuron?

Answer 4

1. Cell body
2. Dendrites
3. Axon

Question 5

What two things does the cell body contain?

Answer 5

1. Cytoplasm
2. Nucleus

Question 6

What do dendrites do?

Answer 6

A: receive messages, impulses, and send them through the cell body and the axon.

Question 7

What is an axon? What does it do?

Answer 7

A: a single long fibre. Sends messages away from the cell body

Question 8

What is the axon covered with?

Answer 8

A: a myelin sheath

Question 9

What does the myelin sheath do?

Answer 9

A: increase speed of the nerve signals

Question 10

How do impulses travel from one neuron to another?

Answer 10

A: across synapses

Question 11

What are synapses?

Answer 11

A: spaces between the nerve cells

Question 12

What is the jumping across synapses helped by?

Answer 12

A: neurotransmitters

Question 13

Where do drugs affect the nervous system?

Answer 13

A: synapses

Question 14

What are the three types of neurons?

Answer 14

1. Sensory
2. Motor
3. Interneurons

Question 15

Sensory neurons send information from where to where?

Answer 15

A: sensory receptors to the CNS

Question 16

Where do motor neurons send information to?

Answer 16

A: away from the CNS to muscles or glands

Question 17

Where do interneurons send information?

Answer 17

A: in between sensory neurons and motor neurons

Question 18

Where are most interneurons located?

Answer 18

A: in the central nervous system

Question 19

What is a stimulus?

Answer 19

A: a detectible change in the environment

Question 20

What is response/reaction?

Answer 20

A: how the body reacts to a stimulus

Question 21

What is reflex arc?

Answer 21

A: the pathway that is signal follows to produce a quick response to a stimulus

Question 22

Do reflexes have to travel to the brain before causing a response?

Answer 22

A: no

Question 23

What are the two parts of the central nervous system?

Answer 23

1. Brain
2. Spinal cord

Question 24

What does the brain do?

Answer 24

A: coordinates body activities

Question 25

How many neurons is the brain made up of?

Answer 25

A: 100 billion

Question 26

What percent of oxygen and energy does the brain use?

Answer 26

A: 20%

Question 27

What are the three major parts of the brain?

Answer 27

1. Cerebrum 2. Cerebellum 3. Brain stem

Question 28

What is the cerebrum? What is it responsible for?

Answer 28

A: the largest part of the brain. It’s responsible for thinking movements and storing memories.

Question 29

What does the cerebellum do?

Answer 29

A: coordinate muscles for balance

Question 30

What does the brain stem control?

Answer 30

A: involuntary actions, such as blood pressure, heart rate, breathing and swallowing

Question 31

What is the spinal cord?

Answer 31

A: an extension of the brainstem

Question 32

What does the spinal cord do?

Answer 32

A: it is bundles of neurons that carry impulses from all parts of the body to the brain and from the brain to all parts of the body

Question 33

What is the peripheral nervous system?

Answer 33

A: all of the nerves that are not part of the brain and the spinal cord

Question 34

What does the peripheral nervous system do?

Answer 34

A: it connects the body to the brain and spinal cord

Question 35

What are the two divisions of the peripheral nervous system?

Answer 35

1. Somatic 2. Autonomic

Question 36

What is the somatic division do?

Answer 36

A: controls voluntary actions by controlling your skeletal muscles

Question 37

What does the autonomic division do?

Answer 37

A: controls involuntary actions, such as your heart rate, breathing, and digestion

Question 38

What is dementia?

Answer 38

A: a general term for the impaired ability to remember think or make decisions that interferes with doing every day activities

Question 39

What is Alzheimer’s disease?

Answer 39

A: a specific type of dementia that affects most of the brain

Question 40

What is the most common cause of dementia?

Answer 40

A: Alzheimer’s disease

Question 41

What is the cause of Alzheimer’s disease?

Answer 41

A: an abnormal buildup of proteins and around the brain cells

Question 42

What eventually happens to the brain in the last stages of Alzheimer’s disease?

Answer 42

A: it shrinks as brain cells die

Question 43

What is a stroke? What does this do? What happens?

Answer 43

A: a disease in which of blood clot blocks an artery or a blood vessel breaks. Prevent blood from reaching the brain. Brain cells, die, causing brain damage.

Question 44

What is the fifth leading cause of death in the USA?

Answer 44

A: strokes

Question 45

What is Parkinson’s disease? How does it develop? What causes the symptoms?

Answer 45

A: a brain disorder that leads to shaking stiffness and difficulty with walking balance and coordination. A certain neurons in the brain gradually break down or die. A loss of neurons that produce a chemical mass in the brain called dopamine.

Question 46

What is epilepsy? What is the cause of epilepsy?

Answer 46

A: a condition in which brain activity becomes abnormal, causing seizures or periods of unusual behavior, sensations, and sometimes the loss of awareness. The cause is not known, but it is often triggered by stress.

Question 47

What is multiple sclerosis? What does it cause? What are some symptoms?

Answer 47

A: the immune system attacks, the protective myelin sheaths that covers nerve fibres. Communication problems between the brain and the rest of the body. Numbness, electrical shock sensations, and the loss of coordination.

Question 48

What is the cause of carpal tunnel syndrome? What happens?

Answer 48

A: a nerve in the wrist becomes pinched or compressed. It reduces blood flow, causing nerve damage that leads to tingling and numbness of the thumb, index, and middle fingers.