Ch. 2

Question 1

Cell body

Answer 1

Also called soma; Most prominent part of the neuron, containing cell’s nucleus cytoplasm, and structures that produce proteins, convert nutrients into energy, and eliminate waste materials

Question 2

Neurons

Answer 2

Conveys sensory information into the brain; carry out thought, feeling, action; transmits commands to control muscles and organs; a single neural cell in contrast to a nerve

Question 3

Dendrite

Answer 3

Extensions that branch out from the cell body to receive information from other neurons

Question 4

Neurotransmitters

Answer 4

Released by the neuron to communicate with a muscle, organ, or next neuron in a chain

Question 5

Axon

Answer 5

An extension from a neuron’s cell body that carries information to other locations

Question 6

Rate law

Answer 6

A principle that the intensity of a stimulus is represented in an axon by the frequency of action potentials

Question 7

Saltatory conduction

Answer 7

The flow of electricity down the axon in which action potentials jump from one node of Ranvier to the next

Question 8

Neural network

Answer 8

A group of neurons that function together to carry out a process

Question 9

Motor neurons

Answer 9

Neurons that carry commands to the muscles and organs

Question 10

Myelin sheath

Answer 10

Fatty tissue that wraps around the axon to insulate it from the surrounding fluid and from other neurons