Structures of the Nervous System - Appendix B Psy240

Axia College Material
Appendix B

Structures of the Nervous System

This activity will increase your understanding of the different structures of the nervous system and brain. During the Web activity, you will view a variety of structures of the brain and nervous system and label each with the appropriate term. You will use this document to write a description for the terms you used in the activity.

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As you conduct the Structures of the Nervous System activity, follow along with this Word document and fill in the descriptions of those terms you used to label the structures. All of the terms in the activity are listed here, but you only need to provide descriptions for those you used.

|Term |Description |
|Central nervous system |The division of the nervous system that is located within the skull and spine. |
|Cell body |The metabolic center of the neuron; also called the soma. |
|Peripheral nervous system |The division of the nervous system that is located outside the skull and spine. |
|Dendrites |The short processes emanating from the cell body, which receive most of the synaptic contacts |
| |from other neurons. |
|Somatic nervous system | |
|Axon |The long, narrow process that projects from the cell body. |
|Buttons |The buttonlike endings of the axon branches, which release chemicals into synapses. |
|Autonomic nervous system |