PSYCH101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Synaptic Pruning, Mirror Neuron, Myelin

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH101
• Professor: Stephanie Denison

Document Summary

Interneurons collect, organize, and integrate messages from various sources. Neuron parts: cell body: the widest part of the neuron. Contains the cell"s nucleus and other basic machinery common to all bodily functions: dendrites: thin, tube-like extensions that branch extensively and function to receive input for the neuron, axon: a thin, tube like extension from the cell body. Thousands of tiny channels that permit sodium ions to pass through open up. As a result, enough sodium moves inward to cause the electrical charge across the membrane to reverse itself and become momentarily positive inside relative to outside. This sudden shift constitutes the depolarization phase of the action potential. As soon as depolarization occurs, the channels that permitted sodium to pass through close, but channels that permit potassium to pass through remain open. Potassium cells are pushed outside the cell in the repolarization phase. Action potential happen in less than a second across the axon.