Anatomy and Physiology Terms

A touch sensor that also behaves like a hormone releasing cell, and the namesake of a cancer it may not actually produce.

Two opposing sets of reactions run at once, one tearing molecules apart for energy and the other spending that energy building new ones.

An organism that can be seen only through a microscope.

Muscle and nerve fail first when these break down, because those tissues burn the most energy and store the least.

Shape treated as evidence: what a cell, an organ or a whole organism looks like, before asking what it does or is made of.

Bone alone cannot move and muscle alone cannot hold shape, which is why the two are named, examined and treated as one system.

One of the two great branches of blood cell production, and the branch that supplies everything except lymphocytes.

Every thought, movement and sensation depends on these cells passing electrical and chemical signals to one another.

Most of what it does never reaches awareness, since heartbeat, digestion and blood vessel tone are governed with no conscious involvement at all.

The all-purpose adjective for anything to do with nerves, and one that quietly differs from neuronal in what it takes in.

The bridge word between neurology and psychiatry, covering changes in conduct and mood that trace back to the brain itself.

Describing the crossover point at which a nerve impulse ends in a hormone released into the blood rather than a message to the next cell.

A pointer to a system rather than a diagnosis, and one that narrows the search only once the examination localizes the problem.

The cell behind every thought and every movement, and the one the adult brain almost never replaces once it is lost.

The raised opening at the center of the breast where the milk ducts reach the surface, ringed by darker skin.

Keeping DNA behind a membrane is what separates human cells from bacteria, and it lets the cell control which genes are read.

An odor is a smell produced when airborne molecules stimulate the olfactory system.

The parts of the body involved in sensing smell, including the nose and many parts of the brain.

A cell that forms the myelin sheath (a layer that covers and protects nerve cells) in the brain and spinal cord.

Nicknamed the policeman of the abdomen for the way it migrates toward trouble and wraps around inflammation before it can spread further.