Psychology Chapter 2 Test

Without it, you couldn't exist!
Made up of your brain, your spinal cord, and a network of nerves.
Your brain uses information it receives from your nerves to coordinate all of your actions and reactions.

A specialized, impulse-conducting cell.
CENTER OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
Consists of the cell body, axon, and dendrites.

Generates energy needed to carry out the work.

Root like structures, attached to the cell body of neuron, that receive impulses form other neurons.

A long, thin part of a neuron that transmits impulses to other neurons from terminal buttons.

Carry messages in ONE DIRECTION from dendrites/cell body, through axon, to axon terminals.
Then transmits messages from terminal buttons to other neurons, muscles, or glands

Remove dead neurons & waste from the nervous system, nourish neurons, and direct their growth.

A fatty substance that decreases leakage of electrical current being carried along the axon, allowing messages to conduct regularly.

(Sensory Neurons)
Receive & transmit messages from sensory receptors to the spinal cord and brain.
Ex: The feeling you get in your foot after someone steps on it.

(Motor Neurons)
Transmit messages from the brain or spinal cord to muscles and glands.
Ex: Hopping around after someone steps on your foot.

Discovered that neural impulses are electrochemical.
*Connected lightning rods to dissected frogs. When lightning struct their muscles contracted.

Electrochemical messages that travel within neurons at somewhere between 2 and 225 mph.
(neurons & body fluid contain ions in resting state)
Chemical changes happen within neurons which cause them to be transmitted.

An unequal distribution of ions (atoms with a positive or negative charge) on the two sides of the nerve cell membrane.
Expressed as -70 mV, and the minus means that the inside is negative relative to (or compared to) the outside.
It occurs when a membrane is not being stimulated or conducting impulses.

Everything except the brain & spinal cord

To reduce the resting potential of a cell membrane from about 70 millivolts to -----> 0. positive charge
Permeability of the cell membrane changes again, allowing no more sodium ions to enter.