anatomy chapter 14: nervous tissue and neurons

what is the nervous system used for?

whole body communication

what structures are included in the CNS?

the brain and spinal cord

what structures are included in the PNS?

anything nervous system that is not brain or spinal cord!

what is the sensory nervous system also called and what does it mean?

afferent, which means flowing towards the brain

what are the two components that the sensory nervous system gets signals from and what are they?

somatic sensory which is conscious from receptors like eyes and visceral sensory which is unconscious from receptors like blood vessels

what is the motor system also called and what does it mean?

the efferent nervous system, which means flowing away from the body

what does the motor nervous system do?

carries signals from the CNS through the PNS to motor neurons and muscles

what are the two components of the motor nervous system and what do they do?

somatic motor system which is conscious signals like to muscles and autonomic motor system which is unconscious to something like the heart

what are neurons?

they are a cell in the nervous system that is used for information transfer

what are glial cells?

protect and support neurons (anything thats not a neuron in the nervous system)

what is the metabolic rate of neurons and what does that mean?

they have a high metabolic rate meaning they use up a lot of energy

what is a neruons relationship to lifespan and mitosis and what does this mean?

they have a long life span and are non-mitotic, meaning they don’t replicate

what is a neurons relationship to excitability?

they have the ability to respond to stimuli

what is a neurons relationship to conductivity?

they have the ability to pass along a signal

what do the dendrites do for a neuron?

receive impulses and send them into the cell body

what does the axon do for a neuron?

sends nerve impulses to other cells

what are the three structural classifications of a neuron and what do they mean?

unipolar (single and short fiber branches like a T from cell) , bipolar (two processes, one dendrite, and one axon), and multipolar (many dendrites and single axon which is the most common type of neuron)

what are the three functional classifications of neurons and what do they mean?

sensory/afferent (transmits sensory impulses about stimuli to CNS) , motor/efferent (transmits signals from CNS to muscles and glands, and interneurons (retrieve, process, and store information. also communicate between neurons)