Intro to Psychology Vocabulary--Central Nervous System and the Neuron

a branch of psychology concerned with the links between biology and behavior

a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system

the bushy, branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body

the extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands

a layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibers of many neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed of neural impulses as the impulse hops from one node to the next

a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon. the action potential is generated by the movement of positively charged atoms in and out of channels in the axon's membrane

the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse

the junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron. The tiny gap at this junction is called the synaptic gap or cleft.

chemical messengers that traverse the synaptic gaps between neurons. When released by the sending neuron, neurotransmitters travel across the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron, thereby influencing whether that neuron will generate a neural impulse.

"morphine within"--natural, opiatelike neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure.

the body's speedy, electrochemical communication system, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems

the body system composed of the brain and the spinal cord

the sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body.

neural "cables" containing many axons. These bundled axons, which are part of the peripheral nervous system, connect the central nervous system with muscles, glands, and sense organs

neurons that carry incoming information from the sense receptors to the central nervous system.