Lecture 04

Brain 1

  1. Neuroscience
    1. Neuropsychology
    2. Crick's "Astonishing Hypothesis"
    3. Guiding Assumptions
    4. Two Guiding Questions
      1. Where
      2. How
    5. Methods
      1. Brain Functioning
      2. Neurological Damage
      3. Animal Studies
  2. The Nervous System
    1. Divisions
    2. Cells within the Nervous System
  3. Neurons
    1. Three types
    2. Neuron Anatomy
      1. Cell Body
      2. Cell Nucleus
      3. Dendrites
      4. Axon
      5. Terminal Buttons
      6. Myelin Sheath
      7. Nodes of Ranvier

Overview

In this lecture, I introduced the field of neuropsychology. We discussed the issues that stimulate research in this area, as well as the methods used to address these issues. Next, I tried to give you a sense of the simplicity and complexity of the physical processes that underlie psychological phenomena. The neuron is the nervous system's most fundamental unit. Neurons can be found in very primitive organisms (e.g., jellyfish, roundworms), and their structure and function have not changed much for ~550 million years. In humans (as in almost all other animals) three different types of neurons are found: Sensory neurons, motor neurons, and interneurons. In addition to having structures found in almost all cells in the body (e.g., organelles and a nucleus within a cell body), neurons have specialized structures that transfer electrochemical signals. These structures are the dendrites, axon, and terminal buttons. Many axons are wrapped in a fatty substance, called myelin.


Specifics

  1. Describe two cells within the nervous system, and discuss their major functions.
  2. Identify, by sight, 7 structures of a typical neuron, and be able to describe their function.



Neuron Terminology

TypeCell Bodies and DendritesAxons
Sensory  
Motor  
Interneuron