Nervous System Flashcards
What does the nervous system do?
It coordinates a range of operations in our everyday lives. It receives and analyses sensory information from the sensory receptors of our bodies, processes information, and responds in various ways to that information.
What are the types of stimuli that our bodies respond to?
Smell, taste, touch, vision, auditory, temperature, pressure, internal, pain
What is a nerve?
Am enclosed, cable-like bundle of nerve fibres
What are nerves made up of?
Neurons
What are neurons?
They react to stimulus in the environment and send a nerve impulse
What’s the soma or cell body?
Contains the nucleus which holds the DNA of the cell and produces protein so the cell can function
What are dendrites?
Small branching projections distributed throughout the cell body which convey nerve impulses toward the cell body
What is the axon?
- longest part of the neuron
- send nerve impulses out of the cell body
- covered in myelin
What is myelin sheath?
- located along the axon
- allows nerve impulses to travel faster along the axon by insulating it
What happens when the axon isn’t protected by the myelin sheath?
The nerve impulse isn’t properly transmitted
What’s the axon terminal?
-Branch off from the axon
-convey nerve impulses to the synaptic
gap
What is the synaptic gap or cleft?
The space between two neurons
What are the properties of neurons?
Excitable: they react to stimuli by producing a nerve impulse
Conductive: When a neuron is stimulated it sends a one-way electrical current to another neuron or a muscle.
Specialized: they have one job
What are sensory neurons?
They carry nerve impulses to the spinal cord and brain. When these nerve impulses reach the brain, they are translated into ‘sensations’, such as vision, hearing, taste and touch.
What are relay neurons (interneurons)?
They are found in the brain and spinal cord and allow sensory and motor neurons to communicate.
