Download ActionPotentialWebquestCompleteGarrettIan

Action Potential Web Quest AP
Names ________________________
PART 1 – NEURONS
Go to http://www.childrenshospital.org/research/_neuron/index.html
1. What is a neuron? _________________________________________________________
2. Summarize the function of each of the following parts of the neuron:
Soma (Cell Body)________________________________________________________
Dendrites _____________________________________________________________
Axon _________________________________________________________________
Myelin Sheath _________________________________________________________
Synaptic End Bulbs (Synaptic terminal)_______________________________________
Synapse _______________________________________________________________
3. Draw a neuron below and label the parts in the box below.
Stay on http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/reward/
Click on the “Other Cells in the Brain” link and answer the following questions:
5. There are about ______________ neurons in the brain as well as ______________ of support cells
called _____________________.
6. There are 3 types of glial cells. Name each of the 3 and explain their function:
1. ______________________:
2. ______________________:
3. ______________________:
Use your browser’s BACK button to return to the homepage. Now click on “The Reward Pathway
Reinforces Behavior.”
7. What is the reward pathway?
8. How does it work?
Part 2 - Resting Potential and Action Potential Videos (short)
Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP_P6bYvEjE Watch this video. It shows how membrane
potential (resting potential) develops in the neuron cell.
1. What causes the inside of the cell to be more negative compared to the outside of the cell?
Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAmUjvgoO0A Watch this video. It shows how resting
potential develops as well as how an action potential (impulse) develops.
2. What role does the sodium/potassium pump (Na+/K+ pump) have in creating resting potential?
3. What happens to the inside of the cell when sodium ions flood into the cell?
4. After sodium ions have flooded into the cell and the sodium gates close, what happens to the
potassium ions?
5. How does an action potential conduct along an axon?
6. Describe and draw an action potential.
Part 3 – Ions Control Membrane Potential
Go to http://www.bristol.ac.uk/synaptic/basics/basics-2.html
1. Neurons maintain different concentrations of certain ions across their cell membranes. What ion is in
high concentration outside the neuron? _____________________
2. Which ion is in high concentration inside the neuron? ___________________
3. What specialized protein exists in the neural cell membrane? __________________________
4. What is its function? __________________________________________________________
5. Under resting conditions which ion leaks more, the sodium leaking inward or the potassium leaking
outward? ___________________________________________________________
6. The result of the leaks makes the outside of the cell charged ________ and the inside of the cell
charged ________. The cell is said to be ____________.
7. Since sodium is in high concentration outside of the cell what happens if the sodium channel opens in
the membrane? Which way does the sodium move? ________________________.
8. This makes the neuron momentarily ___________ charged. The cell is said to be ___________.
9. This switch in membrane potential is the _________________________.
11. What is the speed of an action potential directly related to?
__________________________________________________________
12. What type of axon results in fast transmission rates?
________________________________________________________________
13. What substance allows for rapid action potential? _________________________
14. What produces myelin in the Peripheral Nervous System? _____________________ Central
Nervous System? _____________________
15. Where does an action potential take place on a myelinated neuron?
___________________________________________________
16. Why does an action potential happen faster on a myelinated neuron than an unmelinated neuron?
______________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
17. What does the disease Multiple Sclerosis have to do with all this?
Part 4 – Can You Explain What Is Happening Here?
Go to http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/neuron and run the simulation.