Prepare for AP Psychology biological bases questions with these practice answers. This covers neurons, brain structures, neurotransmitters, and the nervous system.
Q: Nervous System
Answer: The body’s speedy electrochemical communication network, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous system.
Q: Central Nervous System (CNS)
Answer: The brain and spinal chord.
Q: Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
Answer: Connects CNS to the limbs and organs, essentially serving as a communication relay going back and forth between the brain and the extremities.
Q: Somatic Nervous System
Answer: The division of the PNS that controls the body’s skeletal muscles. Also known as the skeletal nervous system.
Q: Autonomic Nervous System
Answer: The part of the PNS that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs. Controls the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.
Q: Sympathetic Nervous System
Answer: the division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations.
Q: Parasympathetic Nervous System
Answer: The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy.
Q: Neuron
Answer: a nerve cell; the basic building lock of the nervous system.
Q: Sensory neurons
Answer: neurons that carry incoming information from the sensory receptors to the brain and spinal chord.
Q: Interneurons
Answer: Neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and the motor outputs.
Q: Motor Neurons
Answer: neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands.
Q: Soma (Cell Body)
Answer: the neuron’s life support center that also produces neurotransmitters.
Q: Dendrite
Answer: The busy, branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body.
Q: Axon
Answer: The extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers , through which messages pass to other neurons, muscles, or glands.
Q: Myelin Sheath
Answer: a layer of fatty tissue that covers the axon which aides in the speed of neural impulses.
Q: Action potential
Answer: A neural impulse, a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon.
Q: Ions
Answer: electrically charged atoms.
Q: Resting potential
Answer: The fluid interior of a resting axon has an excess of negatively charged ions, while the fluid outside the axon membrane has more positively charged ions.
Q: Selectively Permeable
Answer: the axons surface is very selective about what it allows in.
Q: Polarized
Answer: during the resting state of a neuron when the outside is positively charged and the inside is negatively charged.
Q: Depolarized
Answer: axon is no longer at resting potential; outside is now negatively charged and the inside is now positively charged.
Q: Refractory Period
Answer: Resting state after firing in which the neuron goes back to its polarized resting state.
Q: Excitatory
Answer: accelerates neurons firing speed.
Q: Inhibitory
Answer: Slows neurons firing speed.
Q: Threshold
Answer: The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse.
Q: Synapse
Answer: the junction between the terminal branch of the synaptic gap.
Q: Synaptic Gap
Answer: The tiny gap at the synapse in which neurotransmitters cross.
Q: Neurotransmitters
Answer: Chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons.
Q: Reuptake
Answer: a neurotransmitters re-absorption by the sending neuron.
Q: Ach
Answer: enables muscle action, learning, and memory.
Q: Dopamine
Answer: Influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion.
Q: Serotonin
Answer: Affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal.
Q: Norepinephrine
Answer: Helps control alertness and arousal.
Q: GABA
Answer: A major inhibitory neurotransmitter
Q: Glutamate
Answer: A major excitatory neurotransmitter; involved in memory.
Q: Endorphins
Answer: Natural, opiate-like neurotransmitters link
Q: Agonist
Answer: A molecule that may be similar enough to a neurotransmitter to bind to its receptor and mimic its effects.
Q: Antagonist
Answer: A molecule that binds to receptors but blocks the neurotransmitters functioning.
Q: The Endocrine System
Answer: The body’s slow chemical communication system ; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream.
Q: Hormones
Answer: Chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands, travel through the bloodstream, and affect other tissues.
Q: Adrenal Glands
Answer: a pair of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidneys and secrete hormones that help arouse the body in times of stress.
Q: Pituitary Gland
Answer: the endocrine systems most influential gland. Helps regulate growth and controls other endocrine glands.