neurobiology and immunology

    Cards (80)

    • Innate immune responses are non-specific defenses that act immediately upon encountering foreign substances.
    • Adaptive immunity involves lymphocytes (B-cells and T-cells) that recognize specific antigens through receptors on their surface or inside the cell.
    • Adaptive immune responses involve the production of specific antibodies or T cells, which can recognize and destroy pathogens.
    • Divisions of the Nervous System
      • Central Nervous System (CNS)
      • Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
    • Components of the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
      • Somatic Nervous System (SNS)
      • Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
    • Somatic Nervous System (SNS)
      • Contains sensory and motor neurons
      • Sensory neurons take impulses from sense organs to the CNS
      • Motor neurons take impulses from the CNS to muscles and glands
    • Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)

      • Consists of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
      • Sympathetic system speeds up heart and breathing rates while slowing down peristalsis and production of intestinal secretions
      • Parasympathetic system slows the heart and breathing rates but speed up peristalsis and production of intestinal secretions
    • Types of Neural Pathways
      • Converging
      • Diverging
      • Reverberating
    • Converging neural pathways
      Impulses from several neurons travel to one neuron, this increases the sensitivity to excitatory and inhibitory signals
    • Diverging neural pathways
      Impulses from one neuron travel to several neurons so affecting more than one destination at the same time
    • Reverberating neural pathways
      Neurons later in the pathway link with earlier neurons, sending the impulse back through the pathway. This allows repeated stimulation of the pathway
    • Cerebral cortex
      The centre of conscious thought. It also recalls memories and alters behaviour in light of experience
    • Cerebral cortex
      • There is localisation of brain functions (each area performs a specific function)
      • Sensory area receives impulses from sense organs
      • Motor area sends impulses to skeletal muscles
      • Association areas involved in language processing, personality, imagination and intelligence
    • Cerebrum
      Divided into left and right cerebral hemispheres
    • Information from one side of the body is processed by the cerebral hemisphere on the opposite side
    • The left cerebral hemisphere deals with information from the right visual field and controls the right side of the body, and vice versa
    • The corpus callosum transfers information between the two cerebral hemispheres
    • Memory
      Includes past experiences, knowledge and thoughts
    • Memory
      1. Encoding
      2. Storage
      3. Retrieval
    • Sensory memory
      Retains all visual and auditory input received for a few seconds
    • Short-term memory (STM)
      Has a limited capacity and holds information for a short time
    • STM capacity/memory span
      The number of items, such as letters, words or numbers, that can be held in the STM
    • Items lost from STM
      By displacement (when STM is replaced by new information) or decay (when memory/neural pathways is not reinforced/repeated so it decays/break down)
    • Rehearsal
      Retaining items in the STM by repeating the information again and again
    • Chunking
      Dividing a large number of items (eg 10) into a smaller number of items (3) to improve STM capacity
    • Serial position effect
      The tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best and the middle items worst
    • Working memory model
      Explains why STM can process data to a limited extent as well as store it
    • Long-term memory (LTM)

      Has an unlimited capacity and holds information for a long time
    • Transferring information to LTM
      By rehearsal, organisation or elaboration
    • Rehearsal
      Repeating the information again and again (a shallow form of encoding)
    • Elaboration
      Adding additional information/more detail to the information or adding meaning to information (a deeper form of encoding)
    • Retrieval from LTM
      Aided by contextual cues (the time and place when the information was initially encoded)
    • Neuron
      Nerve cell with a cell body, dendrites (receive impulses) and axon (carries impulses away)
    • Types of neurons
      • Sensory
      • Inter
      • Motor
    • Myelination
      Covering of axon fibres with a myelin sheath, which insulates them and increases the speed of impulse conduction
    • Myelination continues from birth to adolescence
    • Responses to stimuli in the first two years of life are not as rapid or coordinated as those in an older child or adult
    • Certain diseases destroy the myelin sheath causing a loss of coordination
    • Glial cells
      Physically support neurons and produce myelin sheaths
    • Synaptic cleft

      The gap between neurons where neurotransmitters are released