Nervous System and Neural Transmission Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms related to the nervous system, neural transmission, and related diseases based on the lecture notes.

Central Nervous System

The brain and spinal cord.

Peripheral Nervous System

The sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system (CNS) to the rest of the body.

Autonomic Nervous System

The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (such as the heart). Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms.

Sympathetic Nervous System

The division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy.

Somatic Nervous System

The division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles. Also called the skeletal nervous system.

Neurons

A nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system. (Referred to as "neuron" in Meyers).

Glial Cells

Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons; they may also play a role in learning, thinking, and memory.

Motor Neurons

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

Sensory Neurons

Neurons that carry incoming information from the body's tissues and sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord.

Interneurons

Neurons within the brain and spinal cord; they communicate internally and process information between the sensory inputs and motor outputs.

Reflex Arc

The way nerve signals move to a point in a person's back in order to produce a reflex action (Cambridge English Dictionary).

The Homunculus Mapper

(Referred to as "homunculus") A small artificial human or human-like being (Cambridge English Dictionary / Wikipedia).

Neural Transmission

The process by which signaling molecules called neurotransmitters are released by the axon terminal of a neuron, and bind to and react with the receptors on the dendrites of another neuron a short distance away (Cambridge English Dictionary / Wikipedia).

Threshold

The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse.

Action Potential

A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon.

All-or-Nothing Principle

A neuron's reaction of either firing (with a full-strength response) or not firing.

Depolarization

A change within a cell, during which the cell undergoes a shift in electric charge distribution, resulting in less negative charge inside the cell compared to the outside (Cambridge English Dictionary / Wikipedia).

Refractory Period

In neural processing, a brief resting pause that occurs after a neuron has fired; subsequent action potentials cannot occur until the axon returns to its resting state.

Resting Potential

The relatively static membrane potential of quiescent cells (Cambridge English Dictionary / Wikipedia).

Reuptake

A neurotransmitter's reabsorption by the sending neuron.

Multiple Sclerosis "MS"

A disease in which the covering of the nerves gradually becomes destroyed, damaging a person's speech and sight and ability to move (Cambridge English Dictionary).

Myasthenia Gravis

A chronic disease causing weakness of the muscles of the face, arms, and legs that leads to the eyelids falling down and an unsteady way of walking (Cambridge English Dictionary).