🧠 Big Picture
Your Week 1 foundation is: cells build neurons → neuron parts have different jobs → sensory information comes in → the nervous system processes it → motor output goes out.
How the course builds: Week 1 gives you the physical map. Week 3 zooms into the electrical message traveling down the axon. Week 4 begins when that message reaches the presynaptic terminal and communicates with the next cell.
📘 Lesson · Build It One Step at a Time
Open one step, say it back, then close it before moving forward. Orange = course terms. Yellow = remember. Blue = connection.
1 · Start with the cell
A neuron is a cell, so first know the pieces that keep a cell working.
Membrane controls movement in/out. Nucleus contains chromosomes. Mitochondrion provides energy. Ribosomes make proteins. Endoplasmic reticulum transports newly synthesized proteins.
Membrane = border · Nucleus = chromosomes · Mitochondria = energy · Ribosomes = proteins · ER = transport.
2 · Build the neuron map
Dendrites receive. Soma = cell body. Axon carries the message away. Myelin insulates. Presynaptic terminals are the sending end.
Dendrites receive → Soma home base → Axon sends → Terminals hand off.
Week 3: action potential travels down this axon. Week 4: it arrives at the presynaptic terminal.
3 · Three neuron jobs
Sensory neurons respond to sensation. Motor neurons conduct impulses from spinal cord to muscles/glands. Interneurons connect neurons within the nervous system.
Sensory brings information in · interneuron connects · motor sends response out.
4 · Hot stove: make the pathway move
The detailed CNS/PNS and afferent/efferent play-by-play loads here.
5 · Meet the helper crew: glia
Astrocytes + microglia = housekeeping/support. Oligodendrocytes = CNS myelin. Schwann cells = PNS myelin. Radial glia = developmental guidance.
Ollie = oligodendrocyte/CNS · Swan = Schwann/PNS.
6 · Blood-brain barrier = gatekeeper
The blood-brain barrier controls what reaches brain tissue from blood.
Small uncharged or lipid-soluble = easier passive crossing; other substances need transport help.
7 · Cajal: contiguous, not continuous
The full definition of contiguous loads here.
8 · Tinbergen’s four kinds of explanation
The four explanations and your professor’s sneeze example load here.
🖼️ Interactive Identification Part 1
Use your uploaded numbered images. Tap a number, then identify the structure.
Cell structures
Neuron structures
⚙️ What Does It Do? Part 2
Same images, now identify what each labeled structure does.
Cell structure functions
Neuron structure functions
🗂️ Flashcards
Key Terms
Definitions and course vocabulary you need to recognize and explain.
Overall Course Material
Big-picture flashcards for the full Week 1 story and connections.
🧑🏾🏫 Professor Quiz · Actual Questions
Actual professor questions only. The same uploaded 12:47:46 coronal-brain image stays above the one-card question cycle.
Lettered items only use answers supported by the supplied quiz/answer images.
📚 Course Material Anchors
Professor slides: Cajal, neuron doctrine, dynamic polarization, cell structures, neuron structures/types, glia, blood-brain barrier.
Lecture transcript: Tinbergen’s four explanations and physiological message pathways.
Professor quiz + 58/59 + answer screenshot: white/gray matter, gyri/sulci, dura mater, ventricles, directions, planes, and supported coronal-brain labels.