Chapter 2

The Biological Basis of the Behavior

The Neurons: Building Blocks of the Nervous System

1. What are the basic building blocks of the brain and nervous system?
They are neurons.

2. What is a neuron?
It is a nerve cell that receives and sends electrical signals over long distances within the body.

3. What is a neuron made up of?

It is made up of:
 A cell body: It is the main portion of the cell.
 A nucleus: It is inside the cell body of the neuron and contains the genetic material in the form
of chromosomes.
 Dendrites: The dendrites stretch out from the cell body and receive signals from other neurons.
Dendrites and axons do not quite touch each other.
 Axon: The axon extends from the cell body to the terminal endings and passes information to
the next neuron. It is covered with a myelin sheath.
 A myelin sheath: The axons have a protective covering called myelin. Without myelin, the brain
and spinal cord cannot communicate with each other or with the nerves in the rest of the body.

4. What are the types of neurons?

 Sensory neurons that send information from your senses (for example, touch or hearing) to
your brain.
 Motor neurons that send signals from the brain to the muscles and glands of the body.
 Inter-neurons that receive information from one neuron or more and transmit it to other
neurons. The inter-neurons are entirely located within the brain and spinal cord. They are
responsible for the distribution of sensory information and the coordination of motor activities.
They are also involved with memory, planning and learning.

5. Where does an electro- chemical signal that travel through the axon is converted into a chemical
message that travels to the next neuron?
At the axon end.

6. What is a synapse?
It is a gap between the end of the axon and the dendrite of the next neuron. It is also called
synaptic gap or synaptic cleft. It is the spot where neurons come together to communicate.
7. What are axons travelling away from the central nervous system called?
Efferent fibers.

8. What are the two major efferent systems?

 Somatic Nervous System (SNS): It includes all motor neurons that innervate skeletal muscles.
You have conscious control over the activity of the SNS.
 Automatic Nervous System (ANS): You don’t have conscious control over the activities of the
ANS. The visceral motor neurons innervate smooth muscles, cardiac muscle, glands and adipose
tissue throughout the body.

9. What are the functions and responsibilities of each neuron cell body?
 It receives and sends nerve impulses.
 It integrates synaptic input and determines the message to be transmitted to other cells by the
axon.
 It contains the metabolic machinery necessary to transform glucose into energy necessary for
other parts of the neuron.
 It produces the proteins that serve as chemical messengers between cells.

10. What is there at the end of each axon?

There are a set of buttons that connect with dendrites on other neurons.

11. What do the terminal buttons contain?

The contain mitochondria and synaptic vesicles.

12. What do the vesicles contain?

They contain neurotransmitters.

13. Is the connection between terminal buttons and dendrites is through a direct touch?
No, there is a gap called synapse across which neurotransmitters travel to create connecting signals.

14. What are the shapes of neurons? Describe briefly each one of them.
 Anaxonic neurons: They are small and have no anatomical clues to distinguish dendrites from
axons. They are located in the brain and in special sense organs. Their functions are poorly
understood.
 Bipolar neurons: They have one axon and one dendrite tree. They are connected with sensing .
They send information about sight, smell or hearing from the receptor cells to other neurons.
 Unipolar neuron: They have 2 axons. One axon extends centrally toward the spinal cord and the
other axon extends toward the skin or muscle. Most sensory neurons of the peripheral nervous
system are unipolar.
  Multi –polar neurons: They have two or more dendrites and a single axon. They are the most
common type of neuron in the central nervous system. For example, all of the motor neurons
that control skeletal muscles are multi-polar neurons.

The Basic Functions of Neurons

15. What is the basic function of neuron?

Neurons are the basic information processing structures in the central nervous system (CNS). They
process all of the information that flow within to or out of the CNS. They process all the motor
information through which we are able to move, all of the sensory information through which we are
able to see, hear, to smell, to taste and to touch and all the cognitive information through which we are
able to reason, to think, to dream, to plan, to remember etc.

16. Explain how a neuron sends a message to the next one.

When a neuron fires the impulse usually starts in the dendrites and then it passes through the cell
body and then out along the axon. At the end of the axon it releases a chemical called
neurotransmitter which floods into the synapse. That chemical crosses the synapse and reaches the
dendrite of the next neuron.

17. Why is a transmitted signal from one neuron to another called electrochemical message?
Because signals in the nervous system are electrical within the neuron and chemical between
neurons.

18. Who is the director of the nervous system? Who supplement the director?
The brain is the director and the influences of glands supplement it

19. What is the effect of the nervous system on our behavior?

It can make a variety of behavioral changes such as falling aseelp.

20. What can hinder or facilitate the nervous system leading to artificial changes in our behavior?
Drugs

21. What happens to the neurotransmitters after they reach the synaptic cleft?
They are either destroyed by specific enzymes in the synaptic cleft, diffuse out of the cleft, or are
reabsorbed by the cell.

The Nervous System: Its Basic structure and Functions

22. What are the functions of the nervous system?

 It regulates our bodily functions and permits us to react to the external world.
 It is responsible for sending, receiving and processing nerve impulses throughout the body.
 All the organs and muscles rely on the nerve impulses to function.
23. What are the two parts of the nervous system?
 They are the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

24. What does it consist of?

It consists of the brain and the spinal cord.

25. What are the functions of the spinal cords?

 It carries sensory information via afferent (sensory) nerve fibers from receptors throughout the
body to the brain and conducts information via efferent (motor) nerve fibers from the brain to
the muscles and glands.
 It plays a key role in various reflexive actions such as withdrawing your hand from a hot object.

26. What does the peripheral nervous system consist of?

The PNS consists of nerves, bundles of axons from many neurons that connect the central nervous
system with sense organs, muscles and glands throughout the body.

27. What does the peripheral nervous system consist of?

It consists of the somatic nervous system and the autonamic nervous system.

28. What is the somatic nervous system associated with?

It is associated with the voluntary control of body movements throughout the action of skeletal
muscles and with reception of external stimuli.

29. What does the somatic nervous system include?

It includes all the neurons connected with muscles, skin and sense organs. The somatic nervous
system consists of afferent nerves that receives sensory information from external sources and
transmit them to the brain. It also consists of efferent nerves responsible for receiving brain
communications. It processes sensory information and controls all voluntary muscular systems
within the body except reflexive actions.

30. What is the function of the autonomic nervous system?

It regulates the basic visceral (organ) processes needed for the maintenance of normal body
functions. It controls smooth muscles of the viscera (internal organs) and glands.

31. What are the two parts of autonomic nervous system?

They are the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.

32. What does the sympathetic nervous system do?

It prepares the body for using energy as in physical actions. Stimulating this system increases
heartbeats, raises blood pressure, release sugar into the blood for energy and increases the flow of
blood to muscles. This system is involved in fight or fight response.

33. What is the parasympathetic nervous system involved in?

 It is involved in relaxation. It stimulates processes that conserve the body’s energy. Activation of this
system slows heart beat, lowers blood pressure and diverts blood away from skeletal muscles.

34. Draw a diagram of the major divisions of the Nervous System.

Nervous System: Peripheral Nervous System and Central Nervous System (brain and spinal cords)
Peripheral Nervous system: the somatic nervous system (connects central nervous system to
voluntary muscles) and the autonomic nervous system (connects central nervous system to
involuntary muscles).
The autonomic Nervous System: sympathetic system (prepares body for activity) and
parasympathetic system (prepares body for relaxation).

The Brain

35. Why is the brain the most important organ in the human body?
Because it integrates all information from inside and outside the body, coordinates the body’s
actions and enables human beings to talk, think, remember, plan, create and dream.

36. What are the three major regions of the brain?

They are the forebrain, the midbrain and the hindbrain.

37. What is the largest and most complex region of the brain?
It is the forebrain.

38. What does the forebrain encompasses?

It encompasses a variety of structures including the thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system and
cerebrum.

39. What does the thalamus do?

The thalamus processes and relays movement and sensory information. It takes in sensory
information and then passes it on to the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex also sends information
to the thalamus which then sends this information to other systems.

40. What are the responsibilities of the hypothalamus?

Hypothalamus is responsible for controlling hunger, thirst, emotions, body temperature regulation
and circadian rhythms. It also controls the pituitary gland by secreting hormones which give the
hypothalamus a great deal of control over many body functions.

41. What does the pituitary gland affect?

It affects growth, blood pressure, metabolism and sex organ functions.

42. What is the limbic system involved in?

 It is involved in motivation, emotion and memory. The limbic system appears to play a central role in
times of stress, coordinating and integrating the activity of the nervous system.

43. What does the limbic system include?

It includes parts of thalamus, and hypothalamus, the hippocampus, the amygdale and other
structure.

44. What is the role of amygdale?

It has a primary role in processing and memory of emotional reactions especially fear.

45. What is the hippocampus involved in?

It is involved in short-term memory, and spatial navigation. It is also involved in creating episodic
memory. It manages more factual memory than the amygdale.

46. What is the consequence of having damage in the hippocampus?

The consequence is having Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss.

47. What is the cerebrum associated with?

The cerebrum is associated with higher brain functions such as learning, remembering, thinking and
consciousness itself.

48. What are the right and left cerebral hemispheres involved in? Which side of the body does each of
them control?
The right cerebral hemisphere is involved in nonverbal and spatial tasks, while the left hemisphere is
involved in verbal tasks such as speaking and writing. The right hemisphere controls the left side of
the body and the left hemisphere controls the right side.

49. What lobes does each cerebral hemisphere consist of?

Each cerebral hemisphere consists of frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe and temporal lobe.

50. What is the frontal lobe associated with?

The frontal lobe is associated with reasoning, motor skills, higher level cognition and expressing
language.

51. What is the parietal lobe associated with?

The parietal lobe is associated with processing sensory information such as pressure, touch and
pain.

52. What is the role of temporal lobe?

The temporal lobe is associated with interpreting sounds and language we hear.

53. What is the occipital lobe associated with?

 The occipital lobe is associated with interpreting visual stimuli and information.

54. Which side of the body is the left brain hemisphere related to? What is it responsible for?
It is related to the right side of the body. It is responsible for language, math and logic.

55. Which side of the body is the right brain hemisphere related to? What is it responsible for?
It is related to the left side of the body. It is responsible for spatial orientation, face recognition,
body image and the ability to appreciate art and music.

56. What does the nuclei in the midbrain process and generate?
Nuclei processes visual and auditory information and generates reflexive responses to these stimuli.

57. What are the red nucleus and substantia nigra in midbrain are involved in?
They are involved in the control of body movement.

58. What does the hindbrain regulate in our body?

The hindbrain regulates the bodily processes we share with many other life forms on earth.

59. What is the brain stem responsible for?

The brain stem is responsible for vital life functions such as breathing, heartbeat, and blood
pressure.
60. What does the hindbrain consist of?
It consists of the medulla, the pons and the cerebrum.

61. What is medulla involved in?

Medulla is involved in regulating heartbeats, breathing, blood pressure, reflex centers for vomiting,
coughing, sneezing, swallowing and hiccupping.

62. What is the ponds involved in?

The functions of pons are relaying information between the cerebrum and the cerebellum, sleep,
arousal control and assisting in autonomic functions.

63. What are the functions of cerebellum?

The functions of the cerebellum are:
 Maintaining muscle tone and posture;
 Coordination of voluntary motor activity;
 Maintenance of balance

64. What is endocrine system?

 The endocrine system is the collection of glands that produce hormones that regulate metabolism,
growth and development, tissue function, sexual function, reproduction, sleep, and mood, among
other things.

65. What are the major glands that make up the human endocrine?
They are the pituitary gland, the thyroid gland, the parathyroid glands, the pancreas, the adrenal
glands, the gonads and the pineal gland.

66. Why is the pituitary gland called the ‘master gland’?

It is called the master gland because it produces the largest number of different hormones and
therefore has the widest range of effects on the body’s functions.

67. Where is it located?

It is located in the brain.

68. What controls the posterior pituitary?

The nervous system controls the posterior pituitary.

69. What is the effect of the hormones vasopressin and oxytocin that the posterior pituitary produces
on the body functions?
The vasopressin causes blood pressure to rise and regulate the amount of water in the body’s cells.
The oxytocin causes the uterus to contract during childbirth and lactation to begin.

70. What does the anterior pituitary gland do?

The anterior pituitary gland responds to chemical messages from the bloodstream to produce
numerous hormones that trigger the action of other endocrine glands.

71. Where is the thyroid gland located?

The thyroid gland is located below the voice box.

72. What is the effect of hormone thyroxine on our body functions?

Thyroxine is the main hormone secreted into bloodstream by the thyroid gland. It plays vital roles in
digestion, heart and muscle function, brain development and maintenance of bones.

73. Where are the parathyroid glands located?

The parathyroid glands are located behind the thyroid.

74. What is the effect of parathyroid on our body functions?

It secretes the parathormone hormone that controls calcium in our blood and bones.

75. Where is the pancreas located?

The pancreas is between the small intestine and the stomach.
76. What is the role of pancreas?
It regulates the body’s blood sugr levels by releasing the hormones insulin and glucagon into
bloodstream.
77. What happens if the pancreas does not work?
Problems with the pancreas cause different types of diabetes.

78. Where are the adrenal glands located?

The adrenal glands are located above the kidney.

79. What is the effect of the adrenal glands on us?

They release a variety of hormones including adrenaline and the steroids aldosterone and cortisol
that prepare the body for emergencies and stressful situations. They also release small amount of
sex hormones.

80. What are gonads?

They are the sex organs and include the male testes and female ovaries. The gonads in men
secrete more testosterone and in women secrete more estrogen.

81. Where is the pineal gland located?

It is located in the center of the brain.

82. What is the role of the pineal gland?

It produces melatonin, a hormone that affects the modulation of wake/sleep patterns and seasonal
functions. It also contains the biological clock.