Nervous Communication System – Basic Facts

If you have visited the site: http://www.biologymad.com/NervousSystem/NervousSystem.htm you will have loads of back-up information for the nervous system & how it functions. Don’t forget that this system can be included in Homeostasis too.

Here are the things you need to be able to do:

• Make an outline of the organisation of the autonomic nervous system into the two component parts: the sympathetic & parasympathetic systems.

Make sure you can describe the structure of:

• a sensory
• bipolar neurone &
• a motor neurone

so that you can outline their functions in a reflex arc.

Make sure you can describe & explain the transmission of an action potential in a myelinated neurone.

• A myelinated neurone is one that has an axon covered in a myelin sheath.

Question: What is myelin? What is it composed of?

Activity

Write an explanation of the importance of saltatory conduction & the refractory period in the transmission of nerve impulses. You may be given a graph of such a phenomenon.

• Make sure you can describe the structure of a cholinergic synapse, & explain its function.

Activity

Write & draw an outline of the role of synapses. Refer to the direction of the nerve impulse & the interconnection of nerve pathways.

See the images on this page. Identify them, label them where relevant & make sure you can relate them to the questions above. You will have an image of a neurone, a synapse.

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