Monday, September 24, 2012
The Action Potential
Imagine you placed your hand on a burning stove but you did not realize it. You would immediately pull your hand away before your brain even processes what just happened. That is how fast messages travels in a persons nervous system. Your brain thinks for you before you even have the chance to think about what you are doing. When your hand is on the stove, your sensory neurons sense the heat causing an action potential to travel throughout your body. This action potential is an electrical charge that jumps from neuron to neuron towards the brain in order to tell it to move your hand. But the part thats really cool is that these neurons dont even touch. The action potential travels at speeds up to 200 miles per hour. That's like going from Memphis to Nashville in just about an hour. This is one of the many things about psychology that amazes me.
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I agree Sendy. This is pretty crazy stuff. And its amazing all the things that are involved in completing that action in your body, and how short of a period of time all that takes. You mentioned sensory neurons that can sense external things, which cause you to make an action. Like when you touch that hot stove. But then that message has to travel through your PNS (not always CNS because it's a reaction), and then motor neurons are the neurons that trigger your hand to move off the stove. And all this happens in a split second with barely any effort on your part. It's amazing.
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