CHYS 2P35 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Peripheral Nervous System, Neural Plate, Neural Tube
21 Sep 2015
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Chapter 3- biological and environmental contexts of psychopathology. The nervous system begins to develop shortly after conception when a group of cells called the neural plate thickens, folds inward, and forms the neural tube. The brain contains millions of multifunctionning cells, the gill cells, and neurons that are specialized to chemically transmit impulses within the nervous system and to and from other body parts. Nerve bres become heated in myelin, a white substance that increases the ef ciency of communication in the brain. Both before and after birth the shaping of the brain involves the mechanism of pruning, whereby unneeded cells and connections are eliminated. In humans, pruning is thought to underlie the decrease in gray matter that occurs in adolescence. The nerves outside the central nervous system that transmit messages to and from it compose the peripheral nervous system, which has two subsystems.
