Resting Potential & Ions
The resting potential of a typical neuron is approximately this value.
What is –70 mV?
This lobe is primarily responsible for vision.
What is the occipital lobe?
This structure connects the left and right hemispheres.
What is the corpus callosum?
Action potentials are triggered at this part of the neuron.
What is the axon hillock (or more specifically, the axon initial segment)?
This fatty substance wraps around axons and speeds up conduction.
What is myelin?
This ion has a higher concentration inside the neuron at rest.
What is potassium (K⁺)?
The brainstem structure that controls basic life functions like breathing and heart rate.
What is the medulla?
This part of the limbic system is critical for forming new memories.
What is the hippocampus?
The threshold for an action potential is typically around this voltage.
What is -55 mV?
This star-shaped glial cell helps maintain the blood-brain barrier, provides nutrients to neurons, and supports synaptic function.
What are astrocytes?
This ion is “in its happy place” at –70 mV, with no net movement at rest.
What is chloride (Cl-)?
The “little brain” involved in coordination and balance.
What is the cerebellum?
This almond-shaped structure found in the limbic system is involved in fear and emotion.
What is the amygdala?
During depolarization, this ion rushes into the cell.
What is sodium (Na+)?
This lobe of the brain, located just behind the central sulcus, is involved in processing touch, temperature, and pain.
What is the parietal lobe?
The neuron’s “bouncer,” this pump uses ATP to keep sodium out and potassium in.
What is the sodium-potassium pump?
This fissure (also called the Sylvian fissure) separates the temporal lobe from the frontal and parietal lobes.
What is the lateral fissure?
This relay station directs sensory information to the cortex.
What is the thalamus?
This period immediately follows an action potential, when sodium channels are inactivated and no new action potential can be generated.
What is the absolute refractory period?
Located in the midbrain, this structure includes the superior and inferior colliculi and is important for visual and auditory reflexes.
What is the tectum?
This ion leaks into the cell at rest, preventing the resting potential from reaching potassium’s equilibrium potential (–90 mV).
What is sodium (Na+)?
Brains with many folds and grooves, like those in primates, are called this.
What is gyrencephalic?
This small but vital brain structure regulates hunger, thirst, body temperature, and links the nervous system to the endocrine system.
What is the hypothalamus?
The degree to which an ion can cross the neural membrane is called this, and it helps determine the resting membrane potential.
What is permeability?
Before conducting research with animals, scientists must get approval from this type of committee to ensure ethical treatment.
What is the IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee)?