Neurons Flashcards
What is the structure of a neuron?
It includes dendrites, a nucleus, the soma, myelin sheath’s an axon and axon terminals
What are dendrites?
They receive signals from other neurons or sensory receptors
What is the soma?
Controls the centre of the neuron
What is an axon?
Conducts nerve impulses away from the cell body and towards other neurons
What are neurons?
The cells making up the nervous system which conduct electrical impulses there are various kinds of neurons
What is a myelin sheath?
Covers the axon of some neurons and help speed neural impulses
What are sensory neurons?
Mostly unipolar, they have a cell body with two stems on either side
They carry sensory information from the body sensory receptors to the spinal cord and brain (CNS)
What do sensory neurons do?
They convert information from the sensory receptors to neural impulses these impulses travel to the brain where they are translated into sensations, so we can respond appropriately
What are motor neurons?
Mostly multipolar neurons (have a single axon and many dendrites).
They begin at the spinal chord, a long axon leads to the muscle.
What is the function of a motor neuron?
Carry motor commands from CNS to skeletal muscles or glands, allowing control of movement and responses of internal systems.
What are relay neurons?
Mostly multipolar, they have a cell body surrounded entirely by dendrites. They lie in-between the sensory input and motor output.
What is the function of relay neurons?
They are neurons within the CNS that interconnect different parts of CNS.
They pass messages to other neurons within the CNS and allow the sensory motor neurons to communicate with eachother
What is action potential?
Neurons transmit info both within the neuron & from one neuron to another.
Dendrites receive info from the sensory receptors of other neurons.
If the signal coming from the dendrites is strong enough Info then travels across the cell body then along the axon away from the cell body to the axon terminal and towards other neurons.
This info travels along the neuron in the form of an electrical signal
What does the synapse include?
The end of the axon of the presynaptic neuron.
Membrane of the dendrite or cell body of postsynaptic neuron.
The synaptic cleft.
What is the synaptic cleft?
The small gap in between neurons in which neurotransmitters are realeased, permitting nerve impulses to be transmitted between neurons
