NEURONS AND SYNAPTIC TRANSMISSION Flashcards
What is most of the brain made up of?
Cells called glial cells and astrocytes.
What cells are amounts glial cells and astrocytes?
Neurons.
What are neurons?
Specialised cells.
What is the function of neurons?
To move electrical impulses to and from the central nervous system.
On average, how many neurons is each neuronal connected to?
1000.
What do motor neurons do?
Form synapses with muscles and control their contractions.
What are neurotransmitters?
Chemical substances that play an important part in the workings of the nervous system by transmitting nerve impulses across a synapse.
What is the most common type of neuron in the central nervous system?
Relay neuron.
What do relay neurons allow?
Sensory and motor neurons to communicate with each other.
What is a synapse?
The conjunction of the send of the axons of one neuron and the dendrite or cell body of another.
What do sensory neurons do?
Carry nerve impulses from sensory receptors to the spinal chord and the brain.
That is synaptic transmission?
The process by which a nerve impulse passes acrid the synaptic cleft from the presynaptic neuron to another neuron, the postsynaptic neuron.
