Psych Unit 3 Essay

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messages released in response to an action potential traveling to other neurons during neural transmission

Sensory neurons

Fire in response to a stimulus (stunning toe)

If you stub your toe, how does the impulse travel through the nervous systsm allowing you to pull your toe back and jump up and down in pain? Explain how this process occurs (including the process of neural transmission) using the following terms in context. -sensory neuron -peripheral nervous system -central nervous system -interneuron -motor neuron -action potential -neurotransmitter -synapse -neural transmission

If I stub my toe, my sensory neurons, which are neurons that relay information received from the senses and deliver the message to the brain; take information through the peripheral nervous system, the system that connects the sensory and motor neurons to the central nervous system (which is composed of the brain and the spinal cord), to the processing area of the brain. These sensory neurons would travel this pathway to the processing area of the brain after experiencing an action potential. An action potential, also known as, a neuron firing, occurs when, in this case, a sensory neuron receives enough excitatory signals to reach threshold and thus creates an electrical/chemical signal inside of the neuron, which will continue to send the information to neighboring neurons across the synapse, the gap between the neighboring neurons. This action potential will occur and spread like wildfire in neighboring neurons until the message reaches the brain. The brain area responsible for processing this information creates a signal using interneurons, neurons used to moderate messages occurring between sensory and motor neurons, who then relay the signal to the motor neurons. An action potential occurs in the motor neurons upon receiving this message and sends information telling us to jump up and down in pain. However, due to neurotransmitters being released in the brain upon receiving the signal of pain from the sensory neurons, our bodies' natural painkiller, endorphins are released, allowing the experience of pain to fade away.

Central nervous system

Messages (sensory impulses) from the rest of the body travel to the spinal cord to the brain

Interneuron

Messages travel within the brain via interneurons

Motor neuron

Sends messages to muscles through motor neurons (jump up and down)

Action potential

The event of electrical charges traveling within neurons during neural transmission

Synapse

The event of gapping between neurons (during communication between neurons)

Neural transmission

The process by which signaling molecules (neurotransmitters) are released by a neuron and bind to/activate the receptors of another neuron.

Peripheral nervous system

Where messages (impulses) from the rest of the body (stubbing of toe) travel in the way to the brain