Bio Midterm 2 Flashcards
(149 cards)
What are the components of the Central Nervous System?
The brain and the spinal cord
What are the components of the Peripheral Nervous System?
- Afferent (input –> CNS) and Efferent (CNS –> body)
- Efferent is split into the somatic nervous system which controls skeletal muscle mobility, and the autonomic nervous system
- The ANS further splits into the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system
What are the steps of the nervous reflex arc?
- Pain receptor is activated and stimulus occurs (touch hot surface)
- Afferent neuron sends signals to spinal cord
- Interneurons in the spinal cord integrate the information
- One efferent neuron stimulates the flexor muscle to contract (excitatory)
- The other stops the extensor muscle from contracting (inhibitory)
- A reaction occurs, removing body from stimulus
What are chemoreceptors?
- Sensory receptors that detect chemical stimuli such as pH levels, O2 and CO2 levels. Involved in smell and taste
What are mechanoreceptors?
Sensory receptors that sense some form of physical distortion such as an increase in pressure, the bending of a hair follicle, stretching of the lung or movement of a muscle.
What are photoreceptors?
Sensory receptors that sense light (photons)
Describe the signal pathways that occur when a sensory receptor recognises a stimulus
- Stimulus (chemical, light or pressure) is sensed by a receptor protein
- Signal opens or closes an ion channel
- A change in the membrane potential occurs (usually becomes +)
- timulation of the afferent nerve that innervates the sensory receptor cell and the initiation of a nerve signal that is then sent to the central nervous system
What is the process of a signal traveling through a neuron?
- A pre-synaptic cell innervates a post-synaptic cell by passing on a signal to the dendrite
- Stimulation leads to small changes in the membrane potential within the dendrites
- The signal passes through the axon hillock which creates an action potential (AP)
- The AP travels down the axon, hopping between the gaps of the myelin sheath, called the nodes of ranvier
- The AP reaches axon terminals with the synapses which become activated and release neurotransmitters which then transfer the signal to the next post-synaptic nerves’ dendrite(s)
A _____ is a collection of axons from many different neurons. The cell bodies of all of these neurons are found together in ____ or _____.
nerve, ganglia, nuclei
Identify the labeled parts of this neuron diagram
A - Nucleus
B - Soma
C - Dendrites
D - Axon
E - Myelin Sheath
F - Synapse
G - Axon Hillock
H - Axon Terminal
I - Node(s) of Ranvier
_____ functions to remove waste products. ______ help to keep neurons in place and also form the ______-_____ _______
Microglia, Astrocytes, blood-brain barrier
________ (within the central nervous system) and _____ _____(within the peripheral nervous system) form myelin.
Oligodendrocytes, Schwann cells
Nodes of ranvier allowsfor very rapid conduction of nerve impulses by a process called _____ ______
saltatory conduction
Describe the four phases of an action potential
- Resting potential, has a membrane potential usually in the range of -80 to -60 millivolts
- Threshold is reached, Na+ inactivation gates all open, K+ activation gates all closed
- Depolarization, slow increase in membrane potential due to Na+ rapidly moving into the cell through the Na+ channels that have their activation gates open, K+ activation gates begin to close, Na+ inactivation channels begin to close
- Repolarization, peak of the action potential is reached, all Na+ channel inactivation gates are closed and all K+ channel activation gates are open. K+ leaves the cell. Na+ activation gates are all open, but no movement of Na+
5.. Refractory period, Na+ activation gates close, inactivation gates open. K+ inactivation gates open, activation close. K+/Na+ ATPase pump removes excess Na+ and adds K+ to return to resting potential
What does Na+ have to pass through to get from the extracellular fluid into the nerve?
Activation gate: closed when the membrane potential is at the resting level, some open during resting –> threshold phase, all are open threshold –> resting phase.
Inactivation gate: is open at the resting membrane potential, begins to close near peak depolarisation, slowly reopens during repolarisation
What does K+ have to pass through to get from the extracellular fluid into the nerve?
Activation gate: Closed at resting, opens slowly during depolarisation. Closes slowly after peak.
Note: When Na+ inactivation gate is open, K+ activation gate is closed
Once a neuron has generated an action potential there is a period during the depolarisation phase and during the initial stages of the repolarisation phase in which no amount of stimulation can cause this neuron to generate a second action potential. This is called the _____ _____ ______
absolute refractory period
What is the period in which a second stimulus may be able to generate another action potential before membrane potential has returned to the resting level?
Relative refractory period
What’re the two types of synaptic transmission?
Electric synapses: Direct electrical connections between the two cells such that electrical current (i.e., the positive charge carried by Na+ entering the cell) can move directly from one cell into another. Current moves through channels called gap junctions that connect the pre-synaptic cell to the post-synaptic cell.
Neurotransmitters: Enter the space between the two cells (called the synaptic cleft) and they bind to neurotransmitter receptors on the cell membrane of the post-synaptic cell. Generates an AP. Called chemical synapse.
In the case of an ______ neurotransmitter, ion channels of the post-synaptic nerve open and positive ions (like Na+) enter and ______ the cell
excitatory, depolarise
In the case of an ______ neurotransmitter, ion channels on the post-synaptic cell that allow negative ions (such as Cl-) to enter the cell and cause the membrane to _____
inhibitory, hyperpolarize
What does the pineal gland produce?
Melatonin
What does the hypothalamus do?
Activates or inhibits hormones, produces:
- ADH ( + kidney water absorbtion, - urine production)
- Oxytocin (milk production, uterine contraction)
What does the posterior pituitary gland do?
Stores and releases ADH and oxytocin