4 - Sensory Physiology Flashcards
What does the somatic portion of the nervous branch do?
Transmits SENSORY signals from receptors to the brain
What are “motor functions” and “effectors?”
Motor functions are the activities which the brain controls via smooth and skeletal muscle contraction and hormone release
Effectors are the end recipients of these actions: the muscles and glands that the brain is telling to do something
the nervous system for controlling skeletal muscle contraction is called:
the skeletal motor nerve axis
What is the autonomic nervous system responsible for?
Smooth mm, glands, internal organ functions
What is facilitation?
Each time certain types of sensory signals pass through sequences of synapses, these synapses become more capable of transmitting the same type of signal the next time
Where are most subconscious functions performed?
lower areas of the brain—medulla, pons, mesencephalon, hypothalamus, thalamus, cerebellum, and basal ganglia
What are the two major types of synapses?
Chemical and Electrical
The CNS mostly relies on what type of synapses?
Chemical
Where are electrical synapses found?
Cardiac and Smooth Muscle
Most synapses in the brain are:
chemical
When are electrical synapses useful?
Since they have bidirectional conduction, they’re ideal for distributing signals for simultaneous action, like in cardiac muscle
Why are chemical synapses ideal for transmitting nervous impulses?
Transmission only flows in one direction: from the first neuron to the second neuron
What are the three parts of a motor neuron?
- Soma (main body)
- Axon (extends from soma to peripheral nerve)
- Dendrites (brances off the soma that receive sensory input from nerve endings)
What are presynaptic terminals?
80-95% attached to the dendrites
Ends of nerve fibrils that originate from other neurons
May excite or inhibit the postsynaptic neuron
What are some alternate names for presynaptic terminals?
Terminal Knobs
Boutons
End-Feet
Synaptic Knobs
How wide is the synaptic cleft usually?
200-300 angstroms
What are transmitter vesicles?
Secretory vesicles in the presynaptic neuron that contain neurotransmitters
During depolarization of a chemical synapse, what causes release of secretory vesicles into the synaptic cleft?
voltage-gated Calcium influx in the presynaptic neuron
The quantity of neurotransmitter released by the presynaptic neuron is directly proportional to:
the amount of calcium that enters the presynaptic membrane during depolarization
What are the two major parts of receptor proteins in postsynaptic neurons?
Binding Component
Intracellulary Component
Receptor activation controls the opening of ion channels in the postsynaptic cell in one of two ways:
- gating ion channels directly
- Activating Second Messengers
What are ionotropic receptors?
Receptor proteins that directly effect gated ion channels
What are metabotropic receptors?
Influence cellular activity in the postsynaptic neuron via second messenger systems
What is an excitatory transmitter?
a neurotransmitter that opens CATION channels in the postsynaptic neuron
What is an inhibitory transmitter?
neurotransmitters than open ANION channels in the postsynaptic neuron
Negative charges entering a cell =
Positive charges entering a cell =
Inhibition
Excitation
prolonged postsynaptic excitation or inhibition is always caused by:
second messenger systems
ion channel activation is rapid and short
What happens when a transmitter binds to a G protein?
- Receptor exposes a binding site for the G protein complex
- GPC binds to the receptor
- alpha subunit of GPC releases GDP and binds with GTP
- Binding with ATP separates the Alpha unit from the rest of the GPC, and it’s free to move about the cell and perform various functions
What four functions can an activated G complex perform?
- open a specific ion channel for a prolonged time
- Activate cAMP or cGMP, which can in turn activate a multitude of long term cellular changes
- Activate intracellular enzymes
- Activate gene transcription
What are the three ways postsynaptic excitation occurs?
- Opening sodium channels (making resting potential more positive, hypopolarized, easy to excite)
- Decrease conduction through Cl (decreases negative movement into the cell) and/or K gates (decreases positive movement out of the cell) making the resting potential more positive, hypopolarized, easy to excite
- Change the internal metabolism of the postsynaptic neuron to excite activity
What are three ways postsynaptic inhibition occurs?
- Opening of Cl channels, moving more negative anions into the cell and inhibiting excitation
- Increasing conductance of potassium out of the cell, moving positive anions out of the cell, hyperpolarizing and inhibiting excitation
- Activation of receptor enzymes, inhibits metabolic functions etc.
What are the two groups of synaptic neurotransmitters?
Small Molecule Rapid Acting
Neuropeptide Slow Acting or Growth Factors
Function and location of Glycine
synapses at the spinal cord
always inhibitory
Function and location of dopamine
Secreted by neurons in substantia nigra
Usually terminates in basal ganglia
Usually inhibitory
Where are small molecule transmitters synthesized?
Neuropeptides?
Cytosol
Ribosomes (large protein molecules)
When are vesicles reused? When are they not?
Reused with small molecule. Autolyzed with neuropeptides.
How is electrical potential distributed within the soma of a neuron?
Uniformly
any change in potential in any part of the intrasomal fluid causes an almost exactly equal change in potential at all other points inside the soma, as long as the neuron is not transmitting an action potential
What is an EPSP?
Excitatory Postsynaptic Potential
Positive increase in voltage above the normal resting membrane potential
Increased Na movement in. Hypopolarizes. Excites.
What size EPSP is required to elicit an actional potential in the soma?
In the axon initial segment?
+30 to +40 mV
Only +10 to +20 mV
The is why action potentials generally begin in the axon initial segment and not the soma
What is the resting membrane of a neuron?
Threshold for excitement of a neuron?
- 65 mV
- 45 mV
What is an IPSP?
Inhibitory Postsynaptic Potential
An increase in the negativity of the resting membrane potential.
Usually reduces from -65mV to -70mV
Hyperpolarization of a neuron is caused by _____ moving out and _______ moving in
Potassium
Chloride
In most cases, which inhibitory transmitter causes presynaptic inhibition?
GABA
How does GABA cause presynaptic inhibition?
Opens chloride channels on the presynaptic neuron, causing hyperpolarization
How long does inhibitory or excitatory effect on ion channels last if they don’t elicit an action potential?
15 mseconds
What is temporal summation?
successive discharges from a single presynaptic terminal
What does it mean if a neuron is facilitated?
its membrane potential is nearer the threshold for firing than normal but is not yet at the firing level
What is electrotonic current?
Dendrites have almost no sodium channels, so they don’t transmit action potentials.
Instead they spread electronic conduction directly through ions in the cell cytoplasm to the soma
what is decremental conduction?
Most of the membrane potential generated at the ends of the dendrites is lost before it reaches the soma, because the dendrites are very leaky to sodium
What is synaptic transmission fatigue?
What causes it?
repetitive stimulation at a high rate results in decreased excitation. prtective mechanism against excess neuronal activity (why seizures are usually self limited)
- exhausted stores of neurotransmitters
- inactivation of postsynaptic membrane receptors
- abnormal ion concentration in the postsynaptic cell
Alkalosis ________ neuronal activity.
Acidosis ________ neuronal activity.
Increases
Depresses
Why is hyperventilation dangerous in epileptic patients?
pH going from 7.4 to 7.8 to 8.0 often causes cerebral epileptic seizures
Even a short period of hyperventilation, which blows off carbon dioxide and elevates the pH, may precipitate an epileptic attack.
The excitatory terminals on many neurons can store enough excitatory transmitter to cause _______ action potentials
about 10,000
Which three excitatory drugs are found in coffee?
caffeine
theophylline
theobromine
What does strychnine do?
Excitatory
Inhibits the inhibitory transmitter substances, especially glycine, resulting in severe seizures