Week 2: Cognitive Neuroscience: Is it all About the Brain? Flashcards
Caradini (a realist/pessimist) thinks
Even though we understand which parts of the brain are active when we engage in certain activities, we are far from being able to program humans to do certain predetermined activities
Central Nervous System (CNS)
-brain and the spinal cord (transmits signals)
-takes in information through senses and sends it out to parts of the brain so that a behavior can result
-only electric and chemical signals
-gets sent to PNS
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
-neurons with long axons and dendrites
-branches out from spinal cord and brain to reach the extremities
Neuron
A cell that receives electrical and chemical information throughout the body through the CNS and the PNS. The basic element/cell of the brain. Its function is to send/receive signals to communicate with parts of the body – cognitions.
Cell body
-Coordinates all incoming information
-Signals received: electric and chemical
Axon
-Transmits electrical signal that gets received from the cell body
-coordinates and sends the electric, NOT chemical, signal through axon
Think of the axon as
a wire (Sometimes a wire doesn’t work)
Myelin Sheath:
-Conduction
-The outer covering of the axon
-The more insulated the axon is, the more effectively the electric signal is conducted
-makes the process of conducting electric signals to other neurons more efficient.
Symptoms of a worn-out myelin sheath
Multiple sclerosis/MS, cannot coordinate their fine and their gross motor movements (Difficulty walking, cannot grasp objects, etc.)
Nodes of Ranvier
-Saltatory conduction
-Nodules along the axon that expedite the transfer of electric signals from one neuron to another.
The electric single rather than going through the axon…
will hop from one Node to another Node to send more efficiently
Glial cells function
Develop new neurons and to repair broken neurons
Glial cells outnumber
the number of neurons ten to one (constitute half of the brain’s mass)
The richer the connection of glial cells
the more efficiently we transmit information in the brain
Dendrites
-Receive and relay electric information
-Web-like structures at the end of the axon
-Where the chemical signals are being relayed from neuron to neuron
There are around ? neurons in the brain
87 billion neurons in the brain
Neurons firing
when neurons are sending and relaying information (they appear light and “fire-y” in imaging).
Sensory neuron(s) Function
Relay information from the environment to the brain and through the spinal cord. These neurons are primarily in the CNS and relay information to the PNS
Sensory neuron(s) Appearance
-big white structure in the cell body
-axon is the structure that hangs off the cell body (and is connected to other neurons)
-end of the axon is the dendrite
Interneurons Function
Connect sensory, the motor, and other networks of neurons together. They are the gatekeepers that connect other neurons with other kinds of neurons
Interneurons Appearance
For their function, it makes sense that they have a small cell body and long dendrites to make connections with neurons that are far from each other
Motor neurons Function:
Relay information from the brain to the muscles
like when you’re doing a workout, on the last rep
Motor neurons Appearance
Their cell body is larger than interneurons because for the muscles to receive information from the brain, they require a larger mass area. There is much more coordination that needs to be done.
Purkinje cell Function
Relays information in parts of the brain that are highly active when you are trying to do any kind of coordination
Purkinje cell Function Example
When trying to parallel park, trying to coordinate what you see with your hand as you turn the steering wheel while estimating when you have to turn the wheel back.
Purkinje cell appearance
has many webs of roots because it has to branch itself along connecting with various many cells to do anything
Neurons do not
fire randomly