PSYA01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Temporal Lobe, Purkinje Cell, Reticular Formation
Document Summary
The electrical and chemical activities of neurons are the starting point of all behaviour, thought, and emotion. Approximately 100 billion cells in your brain perform a variety of tasks to allow a person to function. Neurons are cells in the nervous system that communicate with one antoher to perform information-processing tasks. In the 1800s scientists studied the mechanics of limbs, lungs and livers in order to study the harder-to-observe brain. Believed the brain was composed of many lattices of fine threads. Late 1880s spanish physician, santiago ramon y cajal found that the cells came in different shapes and sizes. Cajal concluded that neurons are the information-processing units of the brain. Functions such as protein synthesis, energy production, and metabolism. Contains a nucleus; this structure houses chromosomes that contain your dna. Surrounded by a porous cell membrane that allows molecules to flow in and out (there are 2 types of specialized extensions of the cell membrane)