Organisms' response to their internal and external environments Flashcards
What is the point of organisms responding to changes in their environment?
Organisms increase their chance of survival.
What is the role of receptors?
Receptors detect stimuli. Receptors can be cells or they can be proteins on cell surface membranes.
What is the role of effectors?
Effectors are the cells that bring about a response to a stimulus, to produce an effect. Effectors include muscle cells and cells found in glands such as the pancreas.
How do receptors communicate with effectors?
They communicate via the nervous system or the endocrine system, or both.
What are cells in the nervous system called?
Neurones
What do sensory neurones do?
Sensory neurones are responsible for transmitting electrical impulses from receptors to the central nervous system- the brain and spinal cord.
What do motor neurones do?
Motor neurones transmit electrical impulses from the CNS to effectors.
What do relay neurones do?
Relay neurones transmit electrical impulses between sensory and motor neurones.
What are 2 other names for electrical impulses?
Nerve impulses
Action potentials
What is the name for the chemicals that take the information across a synapse to the next neurone?
Neurotransmitters
What is the 5 part reaction chain? (Starting with stimulus)
Stimulus > Receptors > CNS > Effectors > Response
What does the peripheral nervous system comprise of?
The neurones that connect the CNS to the rest of the body.
What are the two different systems of the peripheral nervous system?
The somatic nervous system
The autonomic nervous system
What is the role of the somatic nervous system?
The somatic nervous system controls conscious activities.
What is the role of the autonomic nervous system?
What are the two divisions of the autonomic nervous system and their roles?
The autonomic nervous system controls unconscious activities. The autonomic nervous system has two divisions with opposite effects on the body. The sympathetic nervous system gets the body ready for action- ‘fight or flight’. The parasympathetic nervous system calms the body down- ‘rest and digest’.
What is a reflex?
Where the body responds to a stimulus without making a conscious decision to respond.
What is the name of the pathway of neurones linking receptors to effectors in a reflex?
A reflex arc.
What does a simple reflex arc consist of?
A sensory neurone, relay neurone and motor neurone.
What possibility does the presence of a relay neurone in a reflex arc bring?
If there’s a relay neurone in the reflex arc, the reflex can be be overridden.
What three adjectives can be used to describe the nervous system?
Localised, short-lived, rapid
Why can the nervous response be considered localised?
When an electrical impulse reaches the end of a neurone, neurotransmitters are secreted directly onto target cells, so the response is localised.
Why can the nervous response be considered short-lived?
Neurotransmitters are quickly removed from the synapse once their job is done, keeping the response short-lived.
Why can the nervous response be considered rapid?
Electrical impulses are really fast, so the response is rapid, allowing animals to react fast to stimuli.