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49 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What type of synapse occurs when the axon synapses on a dendrite? |
Axodendritic synapse (far from the trigger zone) |
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What type of synapse occurs when the axon synapses on the cell body? |
Axosomatic synapse (pretty close to the trigger zone) |
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What type of synapse occurs when the axon synapses on the axon? |
Axoaxonic synapse (right on the trigger zone) |
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What is the term for the depolarization of a neuron? |
Excitatory Postsynaptic Potential (EPSP) |
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What is the term for the hyperpolarization of a neuron? |
Inhibitory Postsynaptic Potential (IPSP) |
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True/False: 1 EPSP does not have enough power to generate a new action potential. |
True: Takes about 30 EPSPs in quick succession. |
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How many EPSPs are generated during one action potential? |
One EPSP |
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What is the term for sending more than one action potential (one right after the other) in order to depolarize the next (getting it to threshold)? |
Temporal summation |
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What is the term for a depolarization in a specific "region" that can generate an action potential on the post synaptic side? |
Spatial summation |
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What is the term those involved in helping with depolarizing the membrane (pass along the information)? |
Facilitation |
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What is considered a blocking system, in which you cut off the signal by hyperpolarizing the membrane to an extent to which once an action potential reaches this point it dies? |
Presynaptic inhibition |
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What is an advantage of presynaptic inhibition? |
It stops spontaneous firing from the neuron. |
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What three things do we need to consider when figuring out what type of response we need to make to a particular stimuli (neural coding)? |
What type of neuron is it? Where did it come from? How strong is the signal? |
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What is the term for the "what is it" and "where is it" in which the signal travels from the place of stimuli to the interpretation of the stimuli? |
Labeled line coding |
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How is the strength of a stimulus determined? |
Threshold recruitment: You recruit the closest neurons first and as the pain becomes more severe the further away you continue to recruit (bigger intensity).
Action potentials near threshold means a weak signal. Action potentials far from threshold means a strong signal. |
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What is another way the strength of a stimulus is measured? |
The frequency of action potentials (faster the action potential the stronger the stimulus) |
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What is the maximum speed at which an axon potential can travel when responding to stimuli? |
1000 Hz |
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What is the term for a group of neurons that synapse with each other (1000-1000000) and integrate information with each other? |
Neuron pools |
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What is the term for the area that generates action potentials? |
Discharge zone |
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What is the term for the area that gets close to threshold but not enough to generate new action potentials? |
Facilitated zone |
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What is the term for when an incoming fiber triggers a response in a large number of new neurons which are part of the circuit: motor neuron of the brain can stimulate thousands of muscle fibers? |
Diverging circuit |
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What occurs when information comes from all over (several nerve fibers) onto one neuron: balance and breathing? |
Converging circuit |
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What occurs when action potentials continue on through until something interrupts them (how memory is formed - inhalation and exilhation): considered a loop? |
Reverberating circuit |
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What occurs when their are three parallel circuits (one with one synapse, the second with two synapses, and the third with three synapses) in which a single action potential generates a burst (of three in this case): common in reflexes? |
Parallel after discharge circuit (since the neurons have different delays the signals arrive at the output neuron at different times |
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True/False: The parallel after discharge circuit does not work on a feedback loop, so once all the neurons in the circuit have fired, the output ceases. |
True |
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What is the ability for synapses to change? |
Synaptic plasticity |
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True/False: Synapses are not fixed for life. |
True: In response to experience they can be added, taken away, or modified to make transmission easier or harder. |
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What is the term for making transmission easier? |
Synaptic potentiation |
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What are the three forms of memory? |
1. Immediate (few seconds) 2. Short term (few seconds to hours) 3. Long term (lifetime - large amount of storage) |
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What is a type of short term memory that allows us to hold an idea in mind long enough to carry out an action? |
Working memory |
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What are the two types of long term memory? |
1. Declarative (events and facts - numbers, names, dates) 2. Procedural (motor skills - tie shoes, play instrument) |
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What are the four functions of the spinal cord? |
1. Information highway (from PNS to CNS - label line code) (from CNS to PNS via motor neurons) 2. Integrating center (not all motor information coming down gets moved to the muscles) 3. Locomotion (decision to move a body part) 4. Reflexes |
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What is an involuntary stereotyped response to a stimulus? |
Reflex |
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What are the four regions of the spinal cord: named after the vertebrae where the spinal nerves are emerging? |
1. Cervical 2. Thoracic 3. Lumbar 4. Saccral |
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What is found in the cervical region that is swollen because it is where axons coming from the shoulders and upper limbs leave the spinal cord? |
Cervical enlargement |
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What is found in the lumbar region that is swollen because spinal nerves are coming and out taking information from the trunk down to the lower extremeties? |
Lumbar enlargement |
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How many pairs of spinal nerves are there? |
31 pairs |
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What is the name of the area where the spinal cord ends? |
Medullary cone |
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What is the name of the area where the spinal nerves continue on past the spinal cord (past the medullary cone)? |
Cauda equina |
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What is the name for the structure in which the division of a nerve leaving the spinal cord forms a root as they begin to join together? |
Rootlet |
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What is formed when two roots join together? |
Nerve |
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What are the three types of connective tissue on the spinal cord: meninges? |
1. Dura mater (superficial - tough - wraps the entire brain and spinal cord) 2. Arachnoid mater (middle - lots of fibers) 3. Pia mater (thin layer on surface of spinal cord) |
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What is formed on top of the dura mater that protects the entire spinal cord and brain? |
Dural sheath |
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What type of tissue is the arachnoid mater made up of? |
Simple squamous |
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What continues on through the spinal canal even though the spinal cord has stopped being there because it forms a thin ribbon of connective tissue anchoring into the sacrum? |
Pia mater forming the terminal filum which will eventually come and form an anchor itself in the remnants of the dural sheath and the two of the them will continue downwards forming the coccygeal ligament. |
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What helps anchor the medullary cone? |
Coccygeal ligament |
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What helps anchor the spinal cord, keeping it from flopping back and forth inside the vertebral canal: made up of connective tissue? |
Dendiculate ligament |
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What is the name of the large space between the dura and the vertebral canal? |
Epidural space (filled with fat - helps fill gap and keeps spinal cord from moving around) - where anesthetics are administered |
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What is the name of the opening between the pia and the arachnoid? |
Subarachnoid space (filled with cerebrospinal fluid - continuous with the brain |
