Coordination and movement terminology

Antagonistic pairs: pairs of muscle responsible for movement, necessary because muscle is only able to contract (i.e. biceps and triceps for elbow joint, and even for the iris of the eye)

Axon: the long fiber carrying information away from the neuronal cell body

 Cartilage: reduces friction between bones and acts as a shock absorber

Central Nervous System (CNS): the brain and the spinal cord

Dendrite: receives information from other neurons' axonal end plates.

Effector: carries out the response to a stimulus (i.e. muscle)

Ligament: connects bone to bone

Motor neuron: the nerve cell that carries a signal from the CNS to the organ that carries out the response

Myelin sheath: insulates the axon of neurons for efficient electrical impulses

Nerves: collections of long thin (neuronal) cells that carry information as electrical impulses

Neurotransmitter: the chemicals released into the synaptic cleft that pass the message to the next neuronal cell.

Peripheral nervous system: all the nerves carrying information to (sensory) and from (motor) the CNS.

Receptor: Cell or organ which detects a change in conditions (the stimulus)

Reflex: an involuntary response to a stimulus (i.e. pupil responses to light, knee-jerk)

Reflex arc: the nerve pathway involved in a reflex, usually from receptor to nerve, to relay neuron, and then to the motor neuron which induces the response in the effector.

Relay Neuron: neural cells in the spinal cord that transfer the signal to the motor neuron – slow and non-myelinated, allowing time for the action to be modified by impulses from the brain.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Sensory Neuron: the nerve cell that carries a signal from a receptor to the CNS

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Synapse: the very small gap between the end of the axon of one neuron and the dendrite of the next neuron, where electrical impulses are converted to chemical messages that then can restart as electrical impulses in the recipient cell.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Synovial fluid: liquid that lubricates the joint, absorbs shocks and nourishes living tissues of a joint, the meeting point of two skeleton bones.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Tendon: connects muscle to bone