Week 1

This week we discussed some of the basic vocabulary/anatomy of the Nervous system. A neuron is the fundamental cell type of the Nervous system. Dendrites are tree like branches that form from the cell body that receive incoming impulses. An axon is long and thin and conducts impulses away from the cell body toward another neuron, muscle fiber, or gland cell. The cell body is the "house" of the cell. It contains the nucleus, cytoplasm, and many organelles. The ribosomes of the neuron are called Nissl bodies. The cell body is also referred to as the soma or perikaryon. The axon connects to the cell body via the axon hillock. This is also where action potentials are generated. The cytoplasm of the axon is called the axoplasm. At the end of the axon are the axon terminal buttons. The synaptic bulb is here and has vesicles that release neurotransmitters into the synaptic gap.
Neurotransmitters (NT) are proteins such as Acetylcholine (Ach), Dopamine, Lysine, and Seratonin. There are NT receptors embedded in the dendrite membranes. The NT on the tail of one neuron binds to these receptors on another neuron and a shape change occurs, which also changes the function of the NT. Every neuron produces one type of NT and they only bind with their like NT receptor.
I work in the ICU at EMMC and I see patients receive Dopamine. Until we had this discussion on NT's I didn't realize that Dopamine was one, I thought it was a pain medicine. If a patient has a low heart rate or blood pressure, a Dopamine drip can be started to increase them. The Dopamine works with the sympathetic nervous system to cause these changes. We have Dopamine in our systems naturally, but someone who is sick may need help producing it.