Neurobiology

    Cards (66)

    • What are the two main sections of the nervous system?
      Central nervous system and peripheral nervous system
    • What is the role of the central nervous system (CNS)?
      Receives information and decides responses
    • How do nerve impulses reach effectors?
      Through motor neurons from the CNS
    • What are effectors in the nervous system?
      Muscles or glands that respond
    • What type of neuron carries impulses from receptors?
      Sensory neuron
    • What is the function of an inter neuron?
      Transmits impulses between sensory and motor neurons
    • What does the peripheral nervous system (PNS) consist of?
      Peripheral nerves
    • What does the somatic nervous system control?
      Voluntary movement of skeletal muscles
    • What type of neurons does the somatic nervous system contain?
      Sensory and motor neurons
    • How does the autonomic nervous system function?
      Automatically and involuntarily
    • What regulates the actions of the autonomic nervous system?
      The medulla
    • What does it mean that the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems are antagonistic?
      They have opposite effects on the same structures
    • What is the role of the sympathetic nervous system?
      Involved in "fight or flight" responses
    • How does the sympathetic system prepare the body for action?
      Increases heart rate and breathing rate
    • What is the role of the parasympathetic nervous system?
      Involved in "rest and digest" responses
    • How does the parasympathetic system affect heart rate?
      Decreases heart rate and breathing rate
    • What happens to blood flow during sympathetic activation?
      Diverts blood from the gut
    • What is a converging neural pathway?
      Impulses from several sources channel to one neuron
    • How do converging neural pathways affect sensitivity?
      Increase sensitivity to signals
    • What is a diverging neural pathway?
      Impulses influence several neurons simultaneously
    • How do diverging pathways assist in muscle control?
      Transmit impulses to different muscles simultaneously
    • What is a reverberating neural pathway?
      Neurons synapse with earlier ones to recycle impulses
    • What is the function of reverberating pathways?
      Stimulate presynaptic neurons repeatedly
    • What does the medulla control?
      Heart and breathing rate
    • What is the role of the cerebellum?
      Controls balance and muscular coordination
    • What is the cerebral cortex?
      Outer layer of the cerebrum
    • What functions does the cerebral cortex perform?
      Conscious thought, memory recall, behavior alteration
    • What are the three areas of the cerebral cortex?
      Sensory, motor, and association areas
    • What do association areas in the cerebral cortex do?
      Analyze and interpret impulses
    • How are the two hemispheres of the brain connected?
      By the corpus callosum
    • What is the serial position effect?
      Better recall of items at the beginning and end
    • What is the capacity of short-term memory (STM)?
      About seven items
    • How can items be maintained in STM?
      By rehearsal and chunking
    • What is chunking in memory?
      Grouping individual units into larger units
    • How does rehearsal help STM?
      Extends time information is stored
    • What happens to items in STM after a short period?
      Moved to long-term memory or lost
    • What is the first level of memory?
      Sensory memory
    • What is the role of encoding in memory?
      Transfer information from STM to LTM
    • What is the capacity of long-term memory (LTM)?
      Unlimited capacity
    • What processes facilitate the transfer of information to LTM?
      Rehearsal, organization, and elaboration
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