Cells of the Nervous System
This part of the neuron receives signals from other cells.
What are dendrites?
This is the electrical signal that begins neural communication and travels down the axon.
What is an action potential?
This type of drug directly targets the central nervous system to alter mood, perception, thinking, or behavior.
What is a psychoactive drug?
This type of learning involves decreased responding to a harmless stimulus after repeated exposure.
What is habituation?
This brain structure is primarily associated with detecting emotionally significant or threatening information.
What is the amygdala?
These functional neurons carry information from the central nervous system toward the muscles and glands.
What are motor (efferent) neurons?
These chemical messengers are released from axon terminals and bind to receptors on the postsynaptic neuron.
What are neurotransmitters?
A substance that blocks or decreases the function of a synapse is called this.
What is an antagonist?
This type of conditioning pairs a voluntary behavior with its consequence.
What is operant conditioning?
This hormone is strongly associated with the body's stress response and is released during activation of the HPA axis.
What is cortisol?
This part of the neuron acts as the “decision-maker,” determining whether incoming signals are strong enough for the neuron to fire.
What is the axon hillock?
Rapid, repeated signals arriving from the same location are combined through this process.
What is temporal summation?
Alcohol is classified as a ____ergic drug because it enhances the activity of this neurotransmitter system.
What is GABA?
This involves a lasting increase in the strength of communication between two neurons following repeated, high-frequency stimulation.
What is LTP (long-term potentiation)?
A student studies hard because they genuinely enjoy mastering the material rather than to earn a good grade. What type of motivation is this?
What is intrinsic motivation?
A chemical messenger travels across the junction between one neuron’s axon terminal and another neuron’s dendritic spine. Name the structure that forms this communication point.
What is a synapse?
A neuron receives several IPSPs at the same time from different synapses. What will these signals generally do to the neuron's likelihood of firing?
What is decrease the likelihood?
A person takes a drug that blocks adenosine receptors in the brain. What common drug might this be?
What is caffeine?
A memory is initially fragile but becomes more stable over time as neural connections are strengthened and reorganized. What process is occurring?
What is memory consolidation?
A person encounters a sudden threat. Within seconds, their heart rate rises and adrenaline is released. Which stress system is primarily responsible for this rapid response?
What is the sympathetic-adrenal system (SAM)?
A drug prevents a neuron from successfully releasing neurotransmitters from the ends of its axon. Which structure is being directly affected?
What are the axon terminals (terminal buttons)?
A patient experiences recurrent seizures because groups of neurons are producing excessive, uncontrolled electrical activity. The disruption of which major inhibitory neurotransmitter system could contribute to this problem?
What is the GABAergic system?
Drug A increases the activity of a neurotransmitter at its receptor. Drug B prevents that neurotransmitter from activating the receptor. Identify Drug A and Drug B by their pharmacological roles.
What are an agonist and an antagonist, respectively?
According to the Standard Theory of memory consolidation, what happens to the hippocampus and cortex as a memory becomes older?
What is the hippocampus initially supports the memory, but over time cortical connections strengthen and the memory becomes increasingly independent of the hippocampus?
A stressful event is occurring, and the brain must determine whether it is dangerous, initiate a physical response, use context from past experiences, and regulate the reaction. Identify the four major brain structures involved and their primary roles.
What are the amygdala-detection/threat; hypothalamus-activation/response; hippocampus-context; and prefrontal cortex-regulation?