Function
This part of the nervous system controls automatic actions like heart rate and digestion.
What is the autonomic nervous system?
This part of the neuron receives incoming signals.
What are dendrites?
A doctor taps below the knee to test this reflex, which checks spinal cord function.
What is the patellar reflex?
These chemicals carry messages across the synapse from one neuron to the next.
What are neurotransmitters?
This disorder is caused by inflammation of the meninges and often presents with fever, stiff neck, and headache.
What is meningitis?
These cells transmit electrical impulses throughout the body.
What are neurons?
This long fiber carries impulses away from the cell body.
What is the axon?
Loss of myelin in the CNS slows nerve conduction, causing muscle weakness. This correlates with which disease?
What is Multiple Sclerosis?
This pump restores the neuron to resting potential by moving sodium out and potassium in.
What is the sodium–potassium pump?
This degenerative disease is associated with memory loss and buildup of beta-amyloid plaques.
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
This insulating layer speeds up the transmission of nerve impulses.
What is the myelin sheath?
The gap between myelin segments that helps speed conduction.
What are the nodes of Ranvier?
A patient reports numbness and tingling in their hand after sleeping on it. This occurs because of temporary compression of what?
What are peripheral nerves?
This electrical event travels down the axon like a wave once threshold is reached.
What is an action potential?
This disease involves the death of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra.
What is Parkinson’s disease?
This small space between neurons allows neurotransmitters to pass signals to the next cell.
What is the synaptic cleft (synapse)?
This structure connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
What is the corpus callosum?
Damage to this lobe may cause difficulty forming new memories.
What is the temporal lobe (hippocampus involvement)?
This term describes when a neuron becomes more negative and less likely to fire.
What is hyperpolarization?
This autoimmune disorder damages the myelin sheath in the CNS, causing muscle weakness, fatigue, and vision problems.
What is Multiple Sclerosis?
This process occurs when a neuron becomes less negative inside and reaches threshold, causing an electrical signal to fire.
What is depolarization leading to an action potential?
This deep brain structure is responsible for coordination, posture, and fine motor control.
What is the cerebellum?
A physician suspects a neurotransmitter imbalance because a patient shows tremors, slowness, and stiffness. What specific neurotransmitter is decreased?
What is dopamine? (Parkinson’s disease)
This principle states that a neuron fires completely or not at all—there is no “partial” action potential.
What is the all-or-none principle?
This inherited disorder causes involuntary movements (chorea) and cognitive decline due to a mutation in the HTT gene.
What is Huntington’s disease?