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| Question | Answer |
| Nervous System | The body's electrochemical communincation circuitry. |
| 4 Characteristics of the Nervous System | -Complexity -Integration -Adaptability -Electrochemical Transmission |
| plasticity | The brain's special physical capacity for change. |
| Afferent nerves (sensory nerves) | Nerves that carry information about the external environment to the brain and spinal cord via sensory receptors. |
| Efferent nerves (motor nerves) | Nerves that carry information out of the brain and spinal cord to other areas of the body. |
| central nervous system (CNS) | The brain and spinal cord |
| peripheral nervous system (PNS) | The network of nerves that connects rhe brain and spinal cord to other parts of the body. |
| somatic nervous system | The body system consisting of the sensory nerves, whose function is to convey information from the skin and muscles to the CNS about conditions such as pain and temperature, and the motor nerves, whose function is to tell muscles what to do |
| autonomic nervous system | The body system that takes messages to and from the body's internal organs, monitoring such processes as breathing heart rate, and digestion. |
| sympathetic nervous system | The part of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body to mobilize it for action and thus is involved in the experience of stress. |
| parasympathetic nervous system | The part of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body. |
| neurons | One of two types of cells in the nervous system; neurons are the type of nerve cell that handles the information processing function. |
| mirror neurons | Nerve cells in the brain that are activated (in human and nonhuman primates) both when an action is performed and when the organism observes the action being performed by another. |
| glial cells or glia | The second of two types of cells in the nervous system; glial cells provide support, nutritional benefits, and other functions, and keep neurons running smoothly. |
| cell body | The part of the neuron that contains the nucleus, which directs the manufacture of substances that the neuron needs for growth and maintenance. |
| dendrites | Treelike fibers projecting from a neuron, which receive information and orient it toward the neurons cell body |
| axon | The part of the neuron that carries information away from the cell body toward other cells. |
| myelin sheath | A layer of fat cells that encases and insulates most axons. |
| resting potential | The stable negative charge of an inactive neuron. |
| action potential | The brief wave of positive electrical charge that sweeps down the axon. |
| all-or-nothing principle | The principle that once the electrical impulse reaches a certain level of intensity(its threshold), it fires and moves all the way down the axon without losing any intensity. |
| synapses | Tiny spaces between neurons; the gaps between neurons are referred to as synaptic gaps. |
| neurotransmitters | Chemical substances that are stored in very tiny sacs within the terminal buttons and involved in transmitting information across the synaptic gap to the next neuron. |
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