PSYC1003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Substantia Nigra, The Peripheral, Striatum
Document Summary
The nervous system cells of the nervous system cells of the nervous system share many characteristics with other cells in the body. Nervous system cells, like other body cells, each have an outer membrane, a cell body, and a nucleus. Neurons respond to environmental changes by means of three special features: structures called axons and dendrites, excitable surface membranes, and synapses. Axons carry signals away from the neuron to points where communication occurs with other neurons, whereas dendrites detect and carry information from other nerve cells to the cell body. Other nervous-system cells, called glial cells, hold neurons in place, direct their growth and repair, and keep their chemical environment stable. Messages in the nervous system are coded by the speed and rate of action potentials. When a postsynaptic cell is reached by a neurotransmitter, the postsynaptic membrane becomes depolarized or hyperpolarized, creating a postsynaptic potential, and the signal once again becomes electric in nature.
