sodium amytal test: anesthetize one hemisphere and check for language function; dichotic listening test: report more digits heard by dominant half; functional brain imaging: fMRI or PET used to see which half is active when performing a language test speech laterality and handedness sex differences in brain lateralization
A typical neuron has characteristic features: a cell body, dendrites and an axon. The axon projects from the cell body and makes contact with a target cell at the synapse. A neuron is stimulated by signals, chemical and electrical, to initiate an action potential (a rapid and reversible change in membrane potential). In the absence of a signal, the resting potential of the neuron is maintained by the potassium leak channels, which allow the flow of potassium ions out of the cell, resulting in a more negative charge in the cell when compared to outside the cell.
An impulse begins when a neuron is stimulated by another neuron or by a stimulus in the environment. The cell membranes begin to change the flow of ions and a reversal of charges, the action potential, results. An impulse that changes one neuron, changes the next.ppropriate responses are carried out by effectors (a muscle or gland). The Neuron. The neuron, a nerve cell, is the functional unit of the nervous system that carries the impulse (the message) to the appropriate part of the nervous system or interprets the impulse and allows a response.