Do we need to know anything about plant regulators for the exam?
Also I have a few questions about the nervous system:
1). Do motor neurones directly target cells, or do they target muscles/glands ?
2). Do we need to know what depolarisation is in terms of action potentials?
3). Do we need to know what occurs (the chemical intakes/outputs) when an action potential is travelling through an axon?
From the study design...
"the nature of the stimulus-response model and the roles of the nerve pathway and chemical
signals in the transmission of information from receptor to effector..."
"types of signalling molecules: neurotransmitters; animal hormones; pheromones; plant growth
regulators"
About plant growth regulators, from the FAQs, you no longer have to know specific examples (e.g. gibberelins, IAA etc.) though I learnt them anyway
With depolarisation and action potentials, I would say you need to know very briefly what happens with an action potential, but stress the 'very briefly'. What I learnt was very brief: as the impulse moves along an axon, membrane permeability changes (positive sodium ions move in, potassium out) and original distribution is restored after the impulse has moved on. I hope that's accurate, even if it wasn't it didn't hurt me
Again, learning more definitely has advantages: in year 12 I minimised it, I'm now starting to relearn stuff more accurately in more detail
With motor neurons, remember than muscles and glands are made up of individual cells. So motor neurons (individual cells) target these individual cells, and thus all put together, lots of neurons targeting lots of muscle cells, an entire muscle is targeted.