PSY100H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Histone Acetyltransferase, Peripheral Nervous System, Noncoding Dna

• School: UTSG
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY100H1
• Professor: Ashley Waggoner Denton

Document Summary

Nervous system = main interpreter of events in body + outer world; maze of complex cellular networks that relay + process info; purpose: make sense of things + make decisions. Neurons: specialized cells that transmit electrical impulses. Blood vessels supply nutrients + remove waste. People"s nervous system is made unique by their experiences so they communicate different ideas + emotions w/different movements. Brain + spinal cord = problem-solvers that send + receive info to/from all areas of body. Neural networks help us communicate w/each other through movement + sound. Neural: relating to the nerve or nervous system. Brains influenced by both nature (genetic code) + nurture (environmental influence) Epigenetic factors: environmental influences that change expression of genetic material (epi = on top of/in addition to) Used to call it junk dna (doesn"t encode proteins); strands of dna contain switches that turn genes on/off when triggered by environment. Genes are altered during development by changing parts of structure of dna molecules.