B3 Organism level systems Flashcards
(165 cards)
What is the nervous system?
-The nervous system uses electrical impulses to cause fast, but short-lived responses.
-These responses enable organisms to react to their surroundings and coordinate their behaviour.
What is the Central Nervous system?
-Consists of the brain and the spinal cord.
-Coordinates how and where the electrical impulses are transmitted next to allow us to understand our surroundings and respond in order to survive.
What is the peripheral nervous system?
Consists of neurones that carry information to or from the CNS.
Why is the nervous system required?
To move, control and communicate internal processes and to carry out higher order functions like thinking and memory.
What are neurones?
Highly specialised nerve cells that are required to transmit fast but short-lived electrical impulses around the nervous system.
What are sensory neurones?
They send electrical impulses from the receptor (sense organs) to the CNS.
What are relay neurones?
They send electrical impulses from the sensory neurone to the motor neurone within the CNS.
What are motor neurones?
They send electrical impulses from the CNS to the effector (muscles/glands).
What are sensory receptors?
They detect a stimulus and stimulate electrical impulses in response.
What are sense organs?
Contain groups of receptors that respond to specific stimuli.
What is a stimulus?
A change in environment.
What are reflexes?
-Involuntary responses that occur without conscious thought to protect the body from harm.
-They are very fast (0.2s) and the same every time.
What are voluntary responses?
When you consciously decide to do something.
What is a reflex arc?
The pathway taken by an impulse as a subconscious response to a dangerous stimuli during the reflex action.
Why do we need a reflex arc?
Sometimes an extremely quick response is needed and the body doesn’t have time to go to the conscious part of your brain.
Direction of Reflex arc:
Stimulus -> receptor -> sensory neurone -> spinal cord -> relay neurone -> motor neurone -> effector -> response.
Describe process of the reflex arc: (5 steps)
- Sensory receptors detect a stimulus.
- Electrical impulses are sent along a sensory neurone.
- In the spinal cord of the CNS: the electrical impulses are sent along to the sensory neurone.
- The relay neurone sends the electrical impulses along the motor neurone.
- The motor neurone sends the electrical impulses to an effector which produces a response.
What is a synapse?
A gap between 2 neurones and as electrical impulses cannot travel through the synapse, neurotransmitters diffuse across this gap.
Why do we need a synapse?
Allows a neurone to pass electrical impulses to the next neurone as neurones aren’t directly connected to each other.
What are neurotransmitters?
-Chemical messengers released when the electrical impulse reaches the dendrites at the end of the axon.
-This stimulates the 2nd neurone to transmit an electrical impulse along its axon so that the electrical impulse has been carried from one neurone to the next.
How do we use light to see?
The eye contains 2 types of receptor cells: rods and cones.
What are rods?
They respond to different light intensities.
What are cones?
They respond to different wavelengths of light (red, green and blue).
How does the eye make an image?
- The stimulus, light, is detected by the receptor.
- The stimulus is converted by the cells into an electrical impulse.
- This then passes into the optic nerve and is carried to the brain.