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Neuron Structure and Function

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Neuron Structure and Function

Follow a signal from a fingertip to a quick response. Use the reflex pathway and your knowledge of neuron structures to answer the questions. Write in your own words where asked.

Structure and signal flow

Use your knowledge of neuron structures to answer Questions 1–3.

1.A signal arrives at a neuron from another cell. Name the branched structures that usually receive it, then state which part carries the impulse away from the cell body.

2.Which statement best describes the cell body and its role?

It insulates the axon and prevents all signals passing.
It contains the nucleus and helps maintain the neuron and process incoming information.
It releases hormones into the bloodstream.
It forms the gap between two neurons.

3.Match each structure to its main function: myelin sheath; synaptic terminals; axon.

Myelin sheath
Synaptic terminals
Axon

Pass the signal on to another cell at a synapse
Carries impulses away from the cell body
Insulates the axon and helps impulses travel faster

4.A nerve fibre has damaged myelin. Predict one likely effect on the signal travelling along it, and explain why.

A quick withdrawal reflex

Jai touches a hot oven tray and pulls her hand away. A simplified pathway is shown below; the brain can become aware of the pain as signals also travel to it.

Heat receptors in skin detect the stimulus →

Carries impulses from receptors toward the spinal cord →

Interneuron relays the signal in the spinal cord →

Motor neuron carries impulses to arm muscle; muscle contracts

5.In the pathway, which neuron carries information from the skin towards the spinal cord?

Sensory neuron
Motor neuron
Interneuron
Myelin neuron

6.What does the interneuron do in this reflex pathway, and where is it located?

7.Which neuron sends the impulse from the spinal cord to the arm muscle, and what response does the muscle make?

8.Put these events in the correct order by writing 1–4: muscle contracts; heat receptor detects the hot tray; an impulse travels from the skin to the spinal cord; an impulse travels from the spinal cord to the muscle.

9.Explain why withdrawing a hand from a hot surface can happen before a person has fully thought through the pain. Include the spinal cord’s role.

10.Imagine a message network: identify one way a neuron is like a communication network, using at least two neuron structures in your comparison.