PSY 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Myelin, Axon Terminal, Behavioural Genetics

• School: University of Rochester
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 101
• Professor: Estrada

Document Summary

Biological perspective: concerned with the links between biology and behavior, includes psychologists working in neuroscience, behavior genetics, and evolutionary psychology. Neuron: a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system. Dendrites: a neuron"s bushy, branching extensions that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body. Axon: the neuron extension that passes messages through its branches to other neurons or to muscles or glands. Myelin sheath: a fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of some neurons; enabling vastly greater transmission speed as neural impulses hop from one node to the next. Action potential (a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon): neuron stimulation causes a brief chance in electrical charge. If strong enough, this produces depolarization and an action potential: this depolarization produces another action potential a little farther along the axon. Gates in this neighboring area now open, and charged sodium atoms rush in.