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Nervous System Flashcards

1
Q

What is depolarisation of membrane potential?

A

Decrease in potential which means the membrane is less negative

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2
Q

What is repolarisation of membrane potential?

A

Return to resting potential after depolarisation

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3
Q

What is hyperpolarisation of membrane potential?

A

Increase in potential which means the membrane is more negative

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4
Q

What are gated channels?

A

Channels which contain movable folds in the protein that can be open or closed

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5
Q

What are voltage gated ion channels?

A

Open/close in response to changes in membrane potential

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6
Q

What are chemically gated ion/ligand gated ion channels?

A

Change conformation in response to the binding of a specific chemical messenger

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7
Q

What are mechanically gated ion channels?

A

Respond to stretching or other mechanical deformation

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8
Q

What is the difference between graded potential and action potential?

A
  • Graded potential - short distances, strength diminishes over distance
  • Action potentials - long distance, strength does not diminish over ditance
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9
Q

What are five examples of graded potentials?

A
  • Postsynaptic potentials
  • Receptor potentials
  • End-plate potentials
  • Pacemaker potentials
  • Slow wave potentials
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10
Q

What is a nerve?

A

A bundle of axons outside of the central nervous system

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11
Q

What is a fibre tract?

A

A bundle of axons inside the central nervous system

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12
Q

What is the axon hillock?

A

The first portion of the axon plus the region of the cell body from which the axon leaves

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13
Q

What are the two methods of propagation?

A
  • Contiguous conduction
  • Saltatory conduction
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14
Q

What is contiguous conduction?

A

The way an action potential travels along the axon of a neuron that is unmyelinated

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15
Q

What is saltatory conduction?

A

The way an action potential travels along the axon of a neuron that is myelinated

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16
Q

What is the refractory period?

A

Time period when a recently activated patch of membrane is unresponsive to further stimulation

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17
Q

What is the purpose of the refractory period?

A

Prevents an action potential from spreading backwards into the are through which it just passed

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18
Q

What are the two types of refractory periods?

A
  • Absolute refractory period
  • Relative refractory period
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19
Q

What is the absolute refractory period?

A

No new action potential no matter how strong the stimulus

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20
Q

What is the relative refractory period?

A

A second action potential can be initiated but it requires a stronger stimulus

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21
Q

What does a longer refractory period result in?

A

In a greater delay

22
Q

What determines the strength of a stimulus?

A

The frequency of action potentials

23
Q

What are the two things that influence speed of an action potential?

A
  • Fibre myelination
  • Fibre diameter
24
Q

What are myelinated fibres?

A

Neuronal axons covered at regular intervals in myelin

25
What is the role of myelin coating on neural axons?
Acts as an insulator to prevent current leakage
26
What creates the myelination in the central nervous system?
Oligodendrocytes
27
What creates the myelination in the peripheral nervous system?
Schwann cells
28
What are nodes of ranvier?
short regions in the axonal membrane that are not insulated by myelin
29
How does saltatory conduction occur?
Action potential leaps over myelinated sections conducting the impulse 50x faster
30
What are electrical synapses?
Transfer of action potential waveforms through gap junction with negligible time delay
31
What response are electrical synapses used for?
Flight response
32
What are chemical synapses?
When nerves and target cells do not make direct contact converting action potentials into neurotransmitters
33
How are chemical synapses different to electrical synapses?
- Much slower than - Operate in one direction - Allow for various kinds of signalling events
34
What are the steps to an action potential traveling through a chemical synapse?
- Action potential reaches the terminal of presynaptic neuron - Ca2+ enter the synaptic knob - Neurotransmitter released by exocytosis into synaptic cleft - Neurotransmitter binds to receptor sites on the postsynaptic neuron - Specific ion channels open in the subsynaptic membrane
35
What are excitatory responses?
Occurs when neurotransmitters cause positive ions to enter the neuron making the inside less negative and increasing the likelihood of an action potential
36
What are inhibitory responses?
Occurs when neurotransmitters cause negative ions to enter or positive ions to leave the neuron making the inside more negative and decreasing the likelihood of an action potential
37
What are the three ways neurotransmitters are removes from the synaptic cleft?
- May diffuse away - Is inactivated by specific enzymes - Is taken back into the axon terminal
38
What is temporal summation?
Rapid repetitive excitation from a single persistent input
39
What is spatial summation?
Excitation occurring simultaneously from several different presynaptic inputs
40
Where does the action potential originate?
In the axon hillock
41
What is the axon hillock?
Where the axon originates from
42
What is in the central nervous system?
Brain and spinal cord organised into a continuous column of neuron cell bodies and bundle of axons
43
What is the peripheral nervous system?
Nerve fibres that carry information between CNS and other parts of the body subdivided into afferent and efferent divisions
44
What is the somatic nervous system?
Innervates skeletal muscles and controls voluntary actions
45
What is the autonomic nervous system?
Innervates the smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, glands and non-motor organs and controls involuntary actions
46
What are the two subdivisions of the autonomic nervous system?
- Sympathetic nervous system - Parasympathetic nervous system
47
What is the sympathetic nervous system in charge of?
Fight or flight responses
48
What is the parasympathetic nervous system in charge of?
Rest and digest
49
What are glial cells?
Are non-neuronal cells in the nervous system that provide support and protection to neurons
50
What are the four types of glial cells in the central nervous system?
- Astrocytes - Oligodendrocytes - Ependymal cells - Microglia

- Animal Structure and Function (21 decks)

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