CAS PS 101 Lecture 3: Neuroscience

• School: Boston University
• Department: Psychological & Brain Sciences
• Course: CAS PS 101
• Professor: Robert Reinhart

Document Summary

Neurons - the building blocks of the human nervous system. Powered by electrical impulses and communicate with other parts of the nervous system through chemical signals. Dendrite - detects chemical signals from neighboring neurons. Cell body (soma) - keeps the neuron alive and functioning by producing neurotransmitters. Can be up to 2 meters in length. Myelin sheath - encases and insulates axons. Composed of glial cells which facilitate signal transmission. Multiple sclerosis - de-myelinated axons slow down neural impulse. Terminal buttons - the bulbed ends of an axon. Communications to other neurons occur at this end. Synapse - the gap between two neurons that allows for chemical communication between the two. Messages are received by the dendrites , transmitted along the axon , and sent to other neurons via chemical substances released from the terminal buttons across the synaptic cleft. The state of a neuron is dictated by the balance between positive and negative ions within the cell (electrical voltage)