Neuroscience flashcards like these are perfect both for students and enthusiasts. These flashcards cover many important words in this discipline, making them an ideal companion to any intro class.
SENSORY NEURONS are coupled to receptors specialised to: Detect and respond to different attributes of the internal and external environment. The receptors are sensitive to changes in light, sound, mechanical and chemical stimuli promoting the senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell.
What do MOTORNEURONS do? Control the activity of the muscles and are responsible for all forms of behaviour including speech.
What do INTERNEURONS do? Mediate simple reflexes as well as being responsible for the highest functions of the brain.
What are GLIAL CELLS? Contribute to the development of the nervous system and the function of the adult brain. Do not transmit information in the way NEURONS do.
What is the job of the AXONS? To transmit information from one neuron to another.
What is the job of the DENDRITES? To receive the information being transmitted by the AXONS of other neurons.
The brain and spinal cord are connected to: sensory receptors and muscles through long axons making up PERIPHERAL NERVES.
What are the two functions of the SPINAL CORD? 1. It is the seat of simple refexes e.g. the knee jerk. 2. More complex refexes. Forms a highway between the body and the brain in both directions.
What is the 'BETWEEN BRAIN' called? the DIENCEPHALON.
What does the 'MID BRAIN' contain? Groups of neurons,all of which project up to cerebral hemispheres. It is thought that these can modulate the activity of neurons in the higher centres of the brain to promote such functions as sleep or attention.
What does the THALAMUS relay? impulses from all sensory systems to the cerebral cortex, which in turn sends messages back to the thalamus.
What does the HYPOTHALAMUS control? functions such as eating and drinking, and it also regulates the release of hormones involved in sexual functions.
What does the CEREBRAL HEMISPHERE consist of? a core, the basal ganglia, and an extensive but thin surrounding sheet of neurons making up the grey matter of the cerebral cortex. The basal ganglia play a central role in the initiation and control of movement.
The pathways from the sensory receptors to the cortex and from cortex to the muscles cross over from one side to the other, thus: movements of the right side of the body are controlled by the left side of the cortex (and vice versa). Similarly, the left half of the body sends sensory signals to the right hemisphere such that, for example, sounds in the left ear mainly reach the right cortex. However, the two halves of the brain do not work in isolation - for the left and right cerebral cortex are connected by a large fibre tract called the CORPUS CALLOSUM.
What is the CEREBRUM CORTEX required for? Voluntary actions, language, speech and higher functions such as thinking and remembering.