Download File - BHS AP Psychology

Name: _______________________________________________________
Date: ____________________________
AP Psychology 2011
Unit 3A Free Response Quiz
If you stub your toe, how does the impulse travel through your nervous system allowing you to pull your
toe back and jump up and down in pain? Explain how this process occurs (including the process of neural
transmission) using the following terms in context:
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Sensory Neuron
Peripheral nervous system
Central nervous system
Interneuron
Motor neuron
Action potential
Myelin Sheath
Neurotransmitter
Synapse
Scoring Guide: (1.5 Points Each)
__________ Point 1: Sensory Neuron: Students should explain that sensory neurons in the toe fire in
response to stubbing your toe.
__________ Point 2: Peripheral Nervous System: Students should explain that messages from the rest of the
body (including the sensory neuronal impulses that fired when the toe was stubbed) travel through the
PNS on their way to the brain.
__________Point 3: Central Nervous System: Students should explain that sensory impulses from the rest of
the body (including the message from the stubbed toe) travel up the spinal cord to the brain.
__________Point 4: Interneuron: Students should explain that this group of specialized neurons allow
messages to travel within the brain.
__________ Point 5: Motor Neurons: Students should explain that the brain sends messages to muscles
through motor neurons (including the message to jump up and down in pain).
__________ Point 6: Action Potential: Students should explain that electrical charges begin in the dendrite
travel within neurons during neural transmission and that in order to “fire” a neuron must meet the
threshold to begin the action potential sending a chemical signal in a chain reaction down the neurons
axon.
__________ Point 7: Myelin Sheath: Students should explain that neural messages will be transported faster
along nerves that are insulated by a myelin sheath (Including the message of pain and response to the
stubbed toe) that allows neural impulses to travel down an axon from node to node rather than more
slowly along an axon that lacks this insulation.
__________ Point 8: Neurotransmitter: Students should explain that neurotransmitters are released in
response to an action potential and these neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry the neural message
across the synapse to other neurons during neural transmission allowing for one nerve to communicate
with another.
__________ Point 9: Synapse: Students should explain that neural transmission involves neurotransmitters
flowing into the synapse, the gap between neurons, and once crossed these neurotransmitters may bind
to receptors on the next neural cell causing it to fire.
__________Point 10: Response Organization: Students response was well ordered and clearly explained the
neural transmission process using all required terms in an order that is consistent with the question and
the processes of the nervous system in response to pain.