B6: Brain and Mind

Question	Answer
Central Nervous System	Referred to as the processing centre. It consist of the brain and spinal cord. It is connected to the body by the peripheral nervous system (pns).
Peripheral Nervous System	Consists of the sensory neurons that carry the impulses from the receptors to the CNS and the motor neurons that carry impulses from the CNS to the effectors.
Receptors and Effectors	Form part of the complex organs such as the muscle cells in a muscle, light receptor cells in the retina and hormone secreting cells in a gland.
Muscle cells	Impulse travels along motor neurons and stop at the muscle cells (effectors). This causes the muscle cell to contract.
Light receptor	Lens focuses light onto receptor cells in the retina. The receptor cells are then stimulated and send impulses along sensory neurons to the brain.
Hormone secreting cells	Impulse travels along the motor neuron and stops at the hormone secreting cell. This triggers the release of the hormone into the bloodstream.
Neuron	Specially-adapted cells that carry an electrical signal when stimulated. They are elongated to make connections between different parts of the body and have branched endings so that a single neuron can act on many other neurons.
Motor Neurons	Cytoplasm forms a long fibre surrounded by a cell membrane called an axon.
Synapses	Gaps between neurons
Reflex action	Fast, automatic, involuntary response to a stimulus

Resource summary

	Created by James R about 9 years ago