Know Your Neuron
These branching extensions receive incoming messages from other neurons.
What are dendrites?
The minimum level of stimulation necessary to trigger a neural impulse.
What is the threshold?
This neurotransmitter is strongly associated with movement, learning, attention, and reward.
What is dopamine?
The brain and spinal cord together make up this division of the nervous system.
What is the central nervous system (CNS)?
This term refers to genetic influences passed from parents to offspring.
What is heredity/nature?
This part of the neuron contains the nucleus and keeps the cell alive.
What is the cell body/soma?
The neuron's stable, negatively charged condition when it is not firing.
What is the resting potential?
This inhibitory neurotransmitter helps reduce neural activity in the brain.
What is GABA?
All nerves outside the brain and spinal cord belong to this system.
What is the peripheral nervous system (PNS)?
Experiences, upbringing, and surroundings are examples of this influence on behavior.
What is the environment/nurture?
This long extension carries neural impulses away from the cell body.
What is the axon?
The rapid electrical impulse that travels down an axon.
What is an action potential?
This neurotransmitter is associated with mood, sleep, and appetite.
What is serotonin?
This division controls voluntary movements of skeletal muscles.
What is the somatic nervous system?
Researchers compare identical and fraternal siblings using this type of research to investigate heredity and environment.
What are twin studies?
This fatty covering speeds the transmission of neural impulses along an axon.
What is the myelin sheath?
During this process, the neuron's interior becomes more positively charged as it begins to fire.
What is depolarization?
This neurotransmitter is involved in muscle action, learning, and memory.
What is acetylcholine (ACh)?
This division controls glands and internal organs automatically.
What is the autonomic nervous system?
Researchers compare adopted children with biological and adoptive parents in this type of study.
What are adoption studies?
These structures at the end of an axon release chemical messengers into the synapse.
What are terminal buttons?
This principle states that a neuron either fires completely or does not fire at all.
What is the all-or-none principle?
This major excitatory neurotransmitter is involved in learning and memory.
What is glutamate?
This branch of the autonomic nervous system arouses the body during stressful or threatening situations.
What is the sympathetic nervous system?
This perspective examines how natural selection may have shaped behaviors and psychological traits.
What is the evolutionary perspective?