Neuron Structures
These structures are branch like and are spread out on the neuron.
(Remember: to get points you must also be able to identify it on your diagram!)
Dendrites
What is the function of dendrites?
Dendrites receive signals from other neurons.
This type of neuron is triggered by physical and chemical inputs from your environment to help you taste, smell, hear, see, and feel things around you.
Sensory neurons
There are myelin sheaths on dendrites.
False! Myelin sheaths are only used to speed up electronic communication and that only occurs on neural axons.
groupings of axons that are responsible for intaking sensory information and sending it to the brain
Afferent nerves
This structure has two names and is the central region of the neuron. Because this structure houses the nucleus, damage to this part of the neuron is deadly.
(Remember: to get points you must also be able to identify it on your diagram!)
The Cell Body aka Soma
Dendrites are to phone receivers as ______ are to cell phone transmitters.
Axons (they send messages to other neurons)
What type of neuron connects sensory and motor neurons in neural pathways?
Interneurons - they serve as a pathway of communicating or transmitting information between the nervous system's motor and sensory neurons.
Neurons can die, but new ones can't be created.
False! New neurons are created through learning, making new connections, and stem cells (neurogenesis = creation of new neurons in adult brain).
Division of the nervous system responsible for bringing us back to baseline after a scary/exciting event
parasympathetic nervous system
These structures are located at the end of a neuron's axon.
(Remember: to get points you must also be able to identify it on your diagram!)
Axon terminal
What is the role of myelin sheath in a neuron?
Myelin sheath (made of glial cells) is an insulating wrapper that coats the axon of neurons. This coating allows electrical impulses to transmit quickly and efficiently along the nerve cells, which means myelin sheath allow action potentials to occur rapidly.
These neurons allow the brain and spinal cord to communicate with muscles, organs, and glands all over the body.
Motor neurons
Neurons touch when they send connections.
False! (Remember the synaptic cleft = physical space between the two neurons)
a cell that helps protect neurons in the Central nervous system by producing myelin sheaths
bonus 100 points if you can correctly spell it correctly
Oligodendrocytes
This is a tiny fluid-filled space between neurons through which neurotransmitters travel. (HINT: it is the site where communication between neurons occurs)
(Remember: to get points you must also be able to identify it on your diagram!)
Synapse
Explain the function of the axon terminal.
Axon terminals are the part of a nerve cell (neuron) that make synaptic connections with other neurons by sending action potentials away from the cell body and out towards other neurons.
Where are interneurons located in the body?
The brain and spinal cord.
Bundles of axons in the peripheral nervous system are called Nerves
True
A technique used to see the shape of a neuron
Golgi Stain
Different structures that must have been included: cell body, dendrites, axon, axon terminal/synapse
Explain the process of how a neurotransmitter is captured by another neuron.
First, the neurotransmitters are released from the synaptic vesicle into the synapse. Once the neurotransmitters are in the synapse, they bind with receptor sites in the dendrites of the neighboring neuron. (Remember: like a lock and key, different neurotransmitters have different receptor sites)
Sensory neurons gathers information from the sensory world (throbbing finger) as it affects us and then sends the signal onto the interneuron. Once the interneuron processes the information they received from the sensory neuron, it sends a message to the motor neurons to take some action.
Neurons send messages as fast as 268 miles per hour.
True!
a cluster of neuron cell bodies in the peripheral nervous system
Ganglia
The fluid in a neuron in which the nucleus and other cell organelles float in such as the mitochondria
Cytoplasm
Golgi complex
A neuron with one cell body one axons with dendrites connected to the cell body and end of the axon (the classic neuron shaped neuron)
Multipolar Neuron
Our ears are lateral of our heads
True
a slice taken of the brain parallel to the face is on the __________
Frontal/coronal plane