Module 9: Biological Psychology and Neurotransmission Vocab

neuron

• a nerve cell

• the basic building block of the nervous system

dendrite

a neuron’s often bushy, branching extensions that receive & integrate messages, conducting impulses towards the body

axon

the neuron extension that passes messages through its branches to other neurons or to muscles or glands

myelin sheath

• a fatty tissue layer segment alloy encasing the axons of some neurons

• enables vastly greater transmission speed as neural impulses hop from one node to the next

threshold

the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse

sensory neurons

• neurons that carry incoming information from the body’s tissues and sensory receptors to the brain & spinal cord

• afferent

motor neurons

neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands

interneurons

• neurons within the brain and spinal cord

• communicate internally and process information between the sensory inputs and motor outputs

• most numerous

action potential

• a neural impulse

• a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon

synapse

• the junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dentrite or cell body of the receiving neuron

• gap is called synaptic gap or synaptic cleft

reuptake

a neurotransmitter’s reabsorptuion by the sending neuron