Vitamins/Nervous Glossary

The part of the autonomic nervous system that tends to induce secretion, to increase the tone and contractility of smooth muscle, and to slow heart rate.

• Parasympathetic Nervous System

• Somatic Nervous System

• Sympathetic Nervous System

• Central Nervous System

One of the two main divisions of the autonomic nervous system, the other being the parasympathetic nervous system. It system functions to regulate the body's unconscious actions.

• Parasympathetic Nervous System

• Somatic Nervous System

• Sympathetic Nervous System

• Central Nervous System

This knob is adjacent to a tiny cleft or synapse (s). When a nerve impulse reaches this knob, a drug called a neurotransmitter is released from vesicles into the synapse.

• Synaptic Cleft

• Synaptic Knob

• Axon

• Dendrite

The somewhat enlarged, often club-shaped endings by which axons make synaptic contacts with other nerve cells or with effector cells (muscle or gland cells).

• Synaptic Cleft

• Dendrite

• Synaptic Knob

• Axon Terminal

The nerve tissues that controls the activities of the body. In vertebrates it comprises the brain and spinal cord.

• Vitamins

• Autonomic Nervous System

• Central Nervous System

• Reflex Response

The voltage (charge) difference across the cell membrane when the cell is at rest.

• Action Potential

• Resting Membrane Potential

• Depolorization

• Electrochemical Signal

The neuron to which the electrical impulse is transmitted across a synaptic cleft by the release of a chemical neurotransmitter from the axon terminal of a presynaptic neuron.

• Postsynaptic Neuron

• Axon

• Ion Channels

• Dendrite

The part of the vertebrate nervous system that innervates smooth and cardiac muscle and glandular tissues and governs involuntary actions and that consists of the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.

• Somatic Nervous System

• Autonomic Nervous System

• Central Nervous System

The part of the peripheral nervous system associated with skeletal muscle voluntary control of body movements. It consists of afferent nerves and efferent nerves

• Autonomic Nervous System

• Parasympathetic Nervous System

• Somatic Nervous System

• Sympathetic Nervous System

The insulating covering that surrounds an axon with multiple spiral layers of myelin, that is discontinuous at the Nodes of Ranvier. It increases the speed at which a nerve impulse can travel along an axon.

• Myelin Sheath

• Action Potential

• Synapse

• Synaptic Vesicles